Lot 130: ANNA LOUISA SWYNNERTON 1844-1933

JOAN OF ARC

measurements note
89 by 79 cm., 35 by 31 in.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Sotheby's, 23 June 1981, lot 104;
Christie's, Rome, 4 December 1984, lot 51;
Private collection

NOTE

Annie Louisa Swynnerton (nee Robinson) is best-known for her sensitive portrayals of children and young women and her symbolist mythologies and allegories much influenced by George Frederick Watts. As the daughter of a Manchester solicitor she enjoyed a certain amount of financial stability and was able to attend art school at Manchester, Paris and Rome. She began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1879 and also showed pictures at the New Gallery and the Grosvenor Gallery. In 1883 she married the Manx sculptor Joseph William Swynnerton in Rome. In 1922 she became an Associate of the Royal Academy, the first female artist to be honoured by the Academy since 1768. Her work was greatly admired by John Singer Sargent who bought The Oreads and presented it to the Tate Gallery which holds three other works by Swynnerton.

Swynnerton's Joan of Arc shows the figure of a young girl kneeling in prayer, a heavy sword clasped in her hands and the arch of a rainbow above her head - symbolising the presence of God. Wearing a half-suit of armour and chain mail, and a red skirt-clad, Jeanne Darc (1412-1431), sometimes called the 'Maid of Orleans', is shown in ecstatic prayer. From the age of fourteen she had claimed to hear the voices of Saints Michael, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch, all encouraging her to fight the English and save France. Most of the people to whom she spoke about these supernatural experiences were incredulous, but one local commander believed her when she described the holy voices that had addressed her. The story then reached the French dauphin, who was also persuaded that the voices that she continued to hear were messages sent from God. She was therefore allowed to ride at the head of the French army that departed from Blois in April 1429, wearing armour so brightly polished that it shone white in the sun. She led the French troops into battle, and successfully relieved the English siege of the city of Orléans. There followed a further successful campaign in the Loire valley, and then in July she conducted the dauphin to his coronation as Charles VII at Rheims. Having in effect salvaged the French military position at a crucial stage in the Hundred Years War, Joan attempted to withdraw, but was not allowed to return to her home at Domrémy in the Meuse valley. Wounded and defeated in battle near Paris, she then joined in an attempt to relieve Compiègne, which was under siege by the Burgundians. Captured, she was sold by the Duke of Burgundy to the English. Imprisoned and accused of witchcraft, she was tried by a court of French churchmen. She conducted her own defence, but was undone by the cunning arguments of the Bishop of Beauvais. Convicted as a heretic, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake at Rouen on 30 May 1431, her ashes being thrown into the Seine. In 1456, she was exonerated by an ecclesiastical court, and in 1920 she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.

Swynnerton was probably aware of Millais' painting Joan of Arc of 1865 (offered in these rooms, 27 November 2003, lot 25) and possibly also Frank Dicksee's painting of the same subject exhibited in 1902 (present whereabouts unknown). Both these paintings share compositional similarities with the present work but the artist with whose work Swynnerton's is most akin is George Frederick Watts. Watts' ethereal vision and robust painting style is evident in the present picture and he is certainly known to have visited Swynnerton's studio and given her advise and criticism.

Swynnerton was an active member of the Women's Suffrage Movement and founded the Manchester Society for Women Painters in 1879 and signed a petition in 1889 in favour of the emancipation of women. Joan of Arc was a figure prominent among those adopted by the Suffragettes as symbols of women's emancipation. Although no records have been found of Joan of Arc being exhibited, its similarity to another work entitled New Risen Hope (Tate Britain) dated 1904, suggests that it was painted in the first decade of the twentieth century. It was at this time that the issue of votes for women was at its most explosive and it can be regarded as a manifesto of feminine empowerment.