Philip Hermogenes Calderon, RA, (British, 1833-1898)

Joyous Summer: Pleasant it was when woods were green, 1882

Joyous Summer: Pleasant it was when woods were green, 1882
signed and dated 'PHCALDERON-1882' (lower left)
oil on canvas
203 x 162cm (79 15/16 x 63 3/4in).

Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1883, no. 241.

The title of the work comes from the prelude to Voices of the Night by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882).

Born in France, Calderon was the son of a renegade Spanish priest who converted to Protestantism and became Professor of Spanish Literature at King's College, London. Having studied in London and Paris, Calderon began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1853; his output was prolific, his subjects including biblical, historical and literary narratives as well as portraiture. As one commentator noted, Calderon 'painted much, the list of his pictures exhibited at the RA is a long one-most of them at a fairly large size, belonging to the class of genre subjects, sometimes modern, sometimes antique... he had a grace of line and a gift of selecting subjects which would show it, a feeling for colour, a happy art' (The Times, Monday May 2nd 1898).

Calderon's name was made with his 1857 RA exhibit Broken Vows (Tate Britain), which Jeremy Maas describes as 'a sharp essay on Pre-Raphaelitism' (Jeremy Maas, Victorian Painters, London, 1969, p.234). He was elected ARA in 1864, aged only 31, and became a full Academician three years later, the same year in which he became the first English artist to be awarded the ribbon of the Legion d'Honeur at the Paris Exhibition. In 1887 Calderon was appointed Keeper of the RA and manager of the RA schools.

Calderon was the leading light of a group of artists who termed themselves the St John's Wood Clique- adding the location to differentiate themselves from 'The Clique', a group formed by Sir William Powell Frith, RA, Henry Nelson O'Neill, ARA and Augustus Leopold Egg, RA, who determined to revitalise the stuffiness of the Royal Academy. Formed in the 1860s, the St John's Wood Clique comprised of Calderon, John Evan Hodgson, RA, George Dunlop Leslie, RA, Henry Stacy Marks, RA, Valentine Cameron Prinsep, RA, George Adolphus Storey, RA, Frederick Walker, ARA, William Frederick Yeames, RA and David Wilkie Wynfield. The group would meet each Saturday, hold informal sketching classes based on a chosen theme, and then criticise each other's work.

According to some commentators, the group 'seemed to lack any clearly defined directional impulse' (Jeremy Maas, Victorian Painters, London, 1969, p.12). To others, their common goal was to demonstrate 'a fresh attitude to History paintings, and a determined preference for subjects dealing with the British Civil Wars...They strove to depart from the tradition of depicting a particular specific historic event by creating instead imaginary situations which captured the mood of bygone times. Childhood themes particularly appealed to them' (Lionel Lamplough, Victorian Painting, London, 1999, p.144). This ethos is perhaps best demonstrated in Yeames' masterpiece, And when did you last see your father? (Royal Academy 1878, now in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), an imaginary scene in a Royalist House which deals with childhood innocence and a young boy's moral dilemma, which would have resonated to Victorian audiences, who saw children as the models of truth and honesty.

Whatever the artistic intentions of the group, they were well known for their excellent sense of humour, Maas noting that the group's 'unifying bond [was] a fondness for practical jokes' (Jeremy Maas, Victorian Painters, London, 1969, p.334). They enjoyed dressing up, singing and reciting mock sermons, with Calderon again at the forefront. As Bevis Hillier notes, Calderon 'Looked like a Spanish hidalgo, and was nicknamed 'the fiend'. His party piece was Mephistopheles' song from Gounod's 'Faust' and what he lacked in voice, so he made up in satanry, making his entrance on one occasion, in a flash of blue flame! (Bevis Hillier, 'The St John's Wood Clique' Apollo, June 1964).

Calderon's popularity amongst his peers is clearly demonstrated in a Times obituary following his death, of influenza, in 1898. The author notes that 'another very considerable loss has befallen the RA in the death of its Keeper...his decease cast a gloom over the banquet, every artist feeling that he had lost a friend... his kindliness of heart and geniality making him a general favourite' (The Times, Monday May 2nd 1898).

During the 1870s and 1880s, much of Calderon's work is pre-occupied with the subject of women bathing, often painted in a woodland setting. In works such as The Virgin's Bower (Royal Academy, 1870) and A Woodland Nymph (1883, sold Sotheby's London, 11 December 2007, lot 15), Calderon's skill at depicting the female form is ably demonstrated. In the present lot, which calls to mind the work of John William Waterhouse, Calderon draws inspiration from Longsworth's poem to depict Grecian girls dressing and gossiping beside a woodland pool. Painted in 1882, Joyous Summer was executed in the same year as the now iconic image of childhood Captain of the Eleven (sold in these rooms 11 Jul 2012, for a world auction record of £289,000).