Photograph of G.F. Watts's Painting 'The Dove that returned in the evening' also known as 'The return of the Dove' (1868-9) by Frederick Hollyer

work height: 18.6 cm
work width: 54.6 cm
mount height: 18.6 cm
mount width: 54.6 cm

This photograph by Frederick Hollyer (1838-1933) of G. F. Watts’s painting The Dove that Returned in the Evening, also known as The Return of the Dove (1868-69). Based on the story in Genesis 8: 8-9 this painting shows the Dove that Noah sent out after the rains of the flood had stopped returning with an olive branch in its beak, which signalled the assuaging of the waters of the flood. Unlike other nineteenth-century artists who addressed this topic Watts’s paintings focused on the Flood as a moment of meditative stillness in comparison to the dramatic sublime floodscapes of his predecessors.

In the catalogue of G.F. Watts’s works compiled after his death Mary Watts notes that this work is titled Dove that Returned in the Evening though it was first known as The Return of the Dove and it was one of the first of Watt’s works to be considered popular [1]. Gould, Underwood, and Jeffries build upon this idea when they note that this was the first of Watts’s work to inspire a poem and that it created a sensation when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1869 [2].

Critics have praised this work and noted the starkness in the work. Gould, Underwood, and Jeffries argue that it is the antithesis of a work on the same subject by Millias, which shows a girl holding the dove inside of the ark [3]. Writing in 1903 Macmillan also notes the bleak motif of this work. He wrote:

over the wide waste of waters, carrying in its bill the olive leaf — symbol of a world emerging from the awful disaster to begin a new course of higher and purer development. The desolation is made all the more dreary that there is no sign of the Ark visible in all the horizon — nothing to remind one that there is any life in all the world, save that green leaf and the gentle bird. The far-extending parallel lines of water, without any waves or broken surfaces, speak of a shoreless ocean, whose long wash increases the monotony and loneliness. It is an aimless tide forever restless and formless, accomplishing nothing by its ceaseless movement, surging on with resistless power and impressive fixedness of purpose and pitiless majesty over the grave of a perished world. There is sorrow on that sea, if ever there was on any sea in the world [4].

Both of these works emphasize the idea of a barren world covered in water.  Additionally as Macmillan points, the idea that of desolation pervades this image as the there is nothing on the landscape other than water and no signs of life other than the dove and the olive leaf it carried in its beak.

Scholars have also noted how Watts created a number of works based on Noah and the Flood. Phythian compared this work with The Dove which Returned Not Again (COMWG2007.804, 1877) and After the Deluge (COMWG.145, 1885-1891) while Gould, Underwood, and Jeffries and Macmillan note it is one four works Watts created focusing on the flood [5]. It was to be the first of a trilogy of paintings depicting scenes from the flood similar to the three paintings by J. M. W. Turner The Deluge (c.1805), Shade and Darkness – the Evening of the Deluge (1843), and Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) – the Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis (1843), and John Martin’s (1789-1854) The Eve of the Deluge (1840, RCT), The Deluge (1834, YCBA), and The Assuaging of the Waters (1840, FAMS) [6].

Frederick Hollyer trained as an engraver, but moved to photography and was elected as a member of the Photographic Society of London in 1865. Initially known for creating cartes de visite Hollyer moved to Kensington in 1870 where famous painters such as Lord Leighton and G.F. Watts lived at the time. In addition to taking portraits, by the 1870s Hollyer became known for creating photographic reproductions of works by contemporary artists such as Rosetti, Watts, Burne-Jones, Solomon, and Leighton. These reproductions sold well and helped to popularize many artists and their works in exhibition catalogues and books and the Victoria and Albert Museum gave Hollyer permission to photograph and sell photographic copies of paintings in the collection [7].

Footnotes:

[1]  Mary Watts, Catalogue of Works by G.F. Watts,  p. 38.

[2] Veronica Franklin Gould, Hilary Underwood, and Richard Jeffries, “71. The Return of the Dove, oil, 1868-69.” The Vision of G F Watts (ed. Veronica Franklin Gould), page 75.

[3] Veronica Franklin Gould, Hilary Underwood, and Richard Jeffries, “71. The Return of the Dove, oil, 1868-69.” The Vision of G F Watts (ed. Veronica Franklin Gould), page 75.

[4] Hugh Macmillan, The Life-work of George Frederick Watts, R.A., page 152.

[5] John Ernest Phythian, George Frederick Watts, page 135, Veronica Franklin Gould, Hilary Underwood, and Richard Jeffries, “71. The Return of the Dove, oil, 1868-69.” The Vision of G F Watts (ed. Veronica Franklin Gould), page 75, Hugh Macmillan, The Life-work of George Frederick Watts, R.A., pages 150-154.

[6] See also Turner’s The Evening of the Deluge (c. 1843, NGA).

[7] Frederick Hollyer- Life and Work Accessed 23 February 2024.

Text by Dr Eva-Charlotta Mebius