Lot 146: William Charles Thomas Dobson, R.A. (1817-1898)

'And David bade them teach the Children of Judah the Use of the Bow' signed with monogram and dated '1859' (lower right) and signed, inscribed and dated 'W.T.C. Dobson/1859/The Children of Judah/David bade...' (on an old label on the reverse) oil on canvas, painted arch 403/4 x 341/4 in. (103.5 x 87 cm.) PROVENANCE Monseigneur Clarkson. Anon. sale, Sotheby's Belgravia, 9 December 1980, lot 186. with the Fine Art Society, from whom acquired by the present owner. EXHIBITION London, Royal Academy, 1859, no. 429. Virtue Rewarded, 1988, no. 38. NOTES Dobson specialised in paintings with biblical themes, and owing to the received canon which placed religious works above history paintings as 'the highest spirit of Art' his submissions to the Royal Academy received much attention throughout his career. The German born son of an English merchant, his paintings owed much to the Nazarenes, in both style and subject. Few other artists took this precise text depicted here as their inspiration: it comes from the first chapter of the second book of Samuel, but Leighton tackled a related subject in Jonathan and David and painted a secularised version in Hit (formerly also in the Forbes Collection) in which an older male teaches a boy to shoot an arrow. Taken out of its biblical context, the Victorians would have appreciated such an image of a united family - the women nurturing the younger children, and boys being tutored in manly pursuits by their elders. The picture would have held an appeal broader than its Old Testament subject matter would suggest. Dobson exhibited 107 works at the R.A. between 1842 and 1894, including The Charity of Dorcas, shown five years before this picture, which was bought by Queen Victoria. For many years he was Master of the Society of Arts and School of Design in Birmingham. Related smaller works to this picture are sold as succeeding lots 147 and 148.