01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope's Patience and Grief, with Footnotes. #177

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (BRITISH, 1829-1908)

Patience on a monument smiling at Grief

Oil on panel

50 x 42 ¾ in. (127 x 118.6 cm.)

Private collection

The theme of this picture is that of love as a continuum. Stanhope has taken as his title lines from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Act Two, Scene 4, in which Viola, disguised as a page, confesses her love for Orsino, Duke of Illyria. They discuss the nature of love, and whether men and women can love equally. 

The widely read Stanhope may have had other sources in mind when conceiving the picture. In 1859, the American President Abraham Lincoln had revived in a speech the ancient Persian adage of 'this too shall pass’. It is hard not to be reminded of the words of the mystic Julian of Norwich also: 'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well’. Such thoughts are reinforced by the inclusion of a statue of a shepherd (symbolic of Christ the Good Shepherd?) carrying a lamb on his shoulders above the figure of Patience. More on this painting

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (20 January 1829 — 2 August 1908) is an English artist associated with Edward Burne-Jones and George Frederic Watts and often regarded as a second-wave pre-Raphaelite. His work is also studied within the context of Aestheticism and British Symbolism. As a painter, Stanhope worked in oil, watercolor, fresco, and mixed media. His subject matter was mythological, allegorical, biblical, and contemporary. Stanhope was born in Yorkshire, England, and died in Florence, Italy. He was the uncle and teacher of the painter Evelyn De Morgan. More on John Roddam Spencer Stanhope

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