Lot 90: 'Heaven lies about us in our Infancy'

Herbert James Draper (1864-1920) 'Heaven lies about us in our Infancy' signed 'HERBERT DRAPER' (lower left) oil on canvas 34 ¾ x 23 in. (88.3 x 58.4 cm.)

88.3 x 58.4 cm.

Painted for Lucius William O'Brien, 15th Baron Inchiquin (1864-1929).

In 1898 Draper began a portrait of Ethel Jane, Lady Inchiquin, which was finished in 1899 and exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year, before it was removed to Dromoland Castle, the seat of the Inchiquins, near Newmarket-on-Fergus in County Clare, Ireland. After Draper's death in 1920, Lord Inchiquin wrote to Draper's wife Ida that 'Everybody who comes here, admires his portrait of my Wife!' (Letter, 13 September 1920, Draper Archive). A note written by Lady Inchiquin in July 1932 (attached to the stretcher of the present painting) states that our picture was painted as a smaller replica of an earlier work by Draper. Lord Inchiquin was an enthusiastic amateur artist who visited Draper in his studio more than once. It must have been on ones of these visits that he saw the artist's masterpiece Trailing Clouds of Glory, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1899 (no. 67) with the subtitle 'Heaven lies around us in our infancy'. These words are from William Wordsworth's poem 'Intimations of Immortality'. The innocent young Breton girl is seen gazing up into the rays of light, which pour through the stained glass window, towards a wooden model of a galleon. The Liverpool Courier described the painting as '...the sweetest thing he has ever done; one of the truest and tenderest pictures of a child ever painted' (21 August 1899).