Photograph of G.F. Watts's Painting 'The Dove which returned not again' (1877) by Frederic Hollyer

work height: 27 cm
work width: 11 cm
mount height: 28.2 cm
mount width: 15.4 cm

This small photograph by Frederick Hollyer of Watts’s second painting in his Deluge trilogy. The painting depicts the Dove which found land and did not return to Noah and the ark. While the discovery of land should signal hope, this is an ambiguous image because we can see traces of the vices of luxury that brought on the Flood in the necklaces and expensive fabric caught on one of the branches of the vine-covered blighted tree. The picture seems to suggest that those vices may have survived the Flood after all.

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 [1].

In the catalogue of the works by G.F. Watts  Mary Watts she provided G.F. Watts’s thoughts on this painting. She records that he did not consider this work a companion piece to his earlier work The Dove that Returned in the Evening based upon the fact that this work is presented vertically while the other is a horizontal landscape [2]. However, he praises this work as one of his finest. She notes that in a letter dated 27 March 1877 he said, “though the picture is but a stump and a bird, it represents perhaps more than anything I have done the accumulated experience of my life, in it I have carried further than in another other picture certain qualities that I have been slaving after for a great many years” [3]. Though she does not elaborate on what these qualities may here Watts notes that this work represents ideas that he tied to express his entire life.

        Critics of Watts note how The Dove that Returned in the Evening he demonstrates the restoration of hope to the world. These authors base their interpretations based on the imagery of this work. When writing about this work in 1906 Phythian noted, “though the waters are still there, the terror is gone from them, when they are seen through the boughs of the tree in which the dove has found a resting-place” [4].  Macmillan also agreed with this assessment when he noted:

In the third picture of the Deluge group we see the dove in the fork of a tree that rises above the waves, returning no more to the Ark…. Ivy wreaths, much torn and    dishevelled, with here and there a leaf appearing on the long, naked, twining roots that      climb up the tree; and at its foot, a folded cloak of richest material and hue, with         strings of pearl that had encircled the neck of some fair dead form on it, floating by       from a drowned corpse, is caught by the tree, and exhibited as a most significant  survival of the appalling catastrophe. It is most suggestive that the green leaf should be presented on the dead tree, for it is literally as well as figuratively the creator of all life… It is by the green leaf, that the order and beauty of nature are formed, that the air is purified and rendered fit to breathe, that the seasons and zones are formed, and the world made a suitable home for man's habitation. All these were destroyed by the universal wreck of the Deluge. They are all brought back by the green leaf, which alone of all nature's objects conserves and creates [5].

Both of these authors, contemporaries of G.F. Watts, emphasize how this work portrays the idea of hope and how symbols in this work. While Phythian focuses on the bird resting on the tree Macmillan notes the ivy, the green leaf on the tree as well as the jewellery hanging on the tree at the bottom of the work. 

Gould, Underwood, and Jeffries also argue that work represents hope, but offer different rationale. While they note the jewellery, ivy, and the green leaf they highlight another aspect of this work. They state, “the cloudless background, low horizon, and subsiding floods suggest nature readjusting to a brighter future” [6].  Although these authors acknowledge the symbols in this work they note how the overall structure and framing of work also highlight the idea of home.  Moreover, they go on to note how this work also serves as a social criticism against the greedy at the time as these authors note the fallen ivy and jewellery in this work and compare to another work by Watts- A Parasite (COMWG.135, 1903) [7].

Footnotes:

[1]    Frederick Hollyer- Life and Work https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/frederick-hollyer-life-and-work Accessed 23 February 2024.

[2]  Mary Watts, Catalogue of Works by G.F. Watts, p. 39.

[3]  Mary Watts, Catalogue of Works by G.F. Watts, p. 39.

[4]   John Ernest Phythian, George Frederick Watts, page 135.

[5]   Hugh Macmillan, The Life-work of George Frederick Watts. R.A, pages 152-153.

[6]   Veronica Franklin Gould, Hilary Underwood, and Richard Jeffries, “72. The Dove Which Returned Not Again, 1877,” The Vision of G F Watts (ed. Veronica Franklin Gould), page 76.

[7]    Veronica Franklin Gould, Hilary Underwood, and Richard Jeffries, “72. The Dove Which Returned Not Again, 1877,” The Vision of G F Watts (ed. Veronica Franklin Gould), page 76.

Text by Dr Eva-Charlotta Mebius