Source work:
0432/04
John Henry Bacon (1868-1914)
The Ring
1898
Oil on canvas
The Ring - Terrence Patrick
Terrence Patrick (b.1944)
The Ring
Oil on Board
R7 500
John Henry Bacon's (1868-1914) painting The Ring of 1898 is a fair example of a type of subject matter that was popularised by certain late Victorian Art patrons. The genre was marked by sensitivity to the nuances of polite social behavior, intensified by a deepening social awareness fostered largely by the influence of the press. The artists in this school were sensitive to the growing interest in a greater independence within personal relationships. This was as a direct result of the emerging demands by women for social equality and the burgeoning awareness of the double standards that characterised Victorian society.
In these works, the perception of the drama of a shared private life is presented to the viewer as a conversation piece and the appeal is equated with the viewer's psychological acuity. The paintings are marked by a dramatic tension intensified by ambiguity of meaning which makes them essentially enigmas.
Chief amongst this group of artists was the Scottish painter Sir William Quiller Orchardson (1831-1910) who made a name for himself with the paintings Marriage de Convenance and Marriage de Convenance - After which were modelled on Hogarth's Marriage a-la-mode series. Orchardson said of his work that what appealed to him in choosing his subject matter was "the dramatic moment", that precise moment that lays bare the heart of the situation.
I had occasion in the early 1990s to meet the grandson of the artist in Vereeniging. He let me read the unpublished manuscript of the life of Sir William Quiller Orchardson which was left to him by his mother, the biographer. It was illustrated with the most gorgeous mezzotints of his work.
Where I feel that I share with these artists is in the presentation of a psychological riddle whose meaning remains in flux. I also identify strongly with Orchardson's dramatic moment in which he was probably influenced by the critical dialogue around the social relevance of documentary photography. My response to the Bacon painting is an enigma. It could be ironic, an allegory, almost definitely a satire and essentially postmodern in conception. I like to describe it as a Late Romantic reflection on our Post Colonial culture.