Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
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Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-roddam-spencer-stanhope-519" aria-label="More by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Roddam Spencer Stanhope</a>
Wine Press
Presented by Sir Henry Grayson Bt 1930
actions: postures and motions
adults
agriculture and fishing
agriculture, gardening & fishing
arm / arms raised
Bible: Old Testament
cloak
clothing and personal items
crown
Crucifixion - man, arms raised
food and drink
fruit, grape
fruit-pressing
Isiah, chapter 63
man
objects
people
religion and belief
religious
religious and ceremonial
symbols and personifications
wine press
work and occupations
<p>This pictures illustrates the line from the Book of Isiah inscribed on the frame. Stanhope worked alongside Burne-Jones in the Oxford Union building during the project to dcorate its walls with scenes from the 'Morte d'Arthur'. Burne-Jones later reflected 'His colour was beyond any the finest in Europe; an exceptional turn for landscape he had too - quite individual. Rossetti was in a perfect state of enthusiasm about it - that was how he got to know him'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 July 2003 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
12 July 2003 – 28 September 2003
2003-09-28
2003-07-12
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
25 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-25
Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Dunedin, New Zealand)
http://www.dunedin.art.museum
14 May 2004 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
2004-05-14
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2003-07-12
The Pre-Raphaelite Dream: Paintings and Drawings from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
23 May 2007 – 30 September 2007
2007-09-30
23 May 2007 – 30 September 2007
2007-09-30
2007-05-23
Cannon Hall Museum (Barnsley, UK)
2007-05-23
John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and Evelyn de Morgan
Loan-out
10 August 2007 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
10 August 2007 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
2007-08-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-08-10
Pre-Raphaelites and Painters of the Ideal
Collection based display
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
12 February 2016 – 5 June 2016
2016-06-05
12 February 2016 – 5 June 2016
2016-06-05
2016-02-12
Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
2016-02-12
Liverpool Pre-Raphaelites
Loan-out
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
14 December 2018 – 28 April 2019
2019-04-28
2018-12-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
19 June 2019 – 6 October 2019
2019-10-06
2019-06-19
Palazzo Reale (Milan, Italy)
13 May 2021 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
2021-05-13
Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest, Hungary)
2018-12-14
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Tate partnerships & programmes
The Wine Press
support: 940 × 667 mm
frame: 1192 × 914 × 73 mm
Presented by Sir Henry Grayson Bt 1930
<p><i>The Wine Press</i> is one of Spencer Stanhope's early works painted during his association with members of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pre-raphaelite" title="Glossary definition for 'Pre-Raphaelite'"><span>Pre-Raphaelite</span></a> Brotherhood and before he turned to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/allegory" title="Glossary definition for 'Allegory'"><span>allegories</span></a> inspired by the Italian <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/renaissance" title="Glossary definition for 'Renaissance'"><span>Renaissance</span></a> in the manner of Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98). Described by Stanhope's niece, Anna Maria Wilhelmina Stirling, as 'perhaps the finest work he ever executed', <i>The Wine Press</i> had an unusual origin according to Stirling, who claims that: 'It<b> </b>was during a visit to Varennes in his youth that, watching the treading of the winepress by the French peasants, he evolved this design' (Stirling, p.335). Stanhope, who was for a time a pupil of the artist G.F. Watts (1817-1904), completed <i>The Wine Press</i> in 1864, the year of Watts's marriage to the young actress Ellen Terry (1848-1928). Stirling recalls that as Stanhope 'was working at it in Watts' (sic) studio, Ellen Terry, the bride, came into the room and placed herself in the attitude represented by the figure in the picture' (Stirling, p.335). 

</p><p>The Biblical subject derives from the lines inscribed on the frame, 'I have trodden the winepress alone', which are taken from the Old Testment book of Isaiah 63:3 : 'I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment'. The historian, George P. Landow has identified the biblical image of the winepress with the notion of divine punishment, when God threatens mankind with death. In Isaiah 63:3, the Lord is angry 'because His people have not helped in the battle against evil' (George P. Landow<i>,</i> <i>Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows, Biblical Typology in Victorian Literature, Art and Thought</i>, London 1980, pp.182-3). <i>The Wine Press</i> may be understood as an example of Biblical typology, a form of symbolism, revived in the nineteenth century, in which divinely intended prefigurements of Christ's passion and Crucifixion were identifiable in the events of the Old Testament. Biblical typology was frequently employed in Pre-Raphaelite painting. Landow points out that in the Old Testament, the suffering of Christ on the cross is conveyed in the image of treading the winepress: 'Christ, who is both victim and conqueror, treads the winepress and is crushed by it.' (Landow, p.183). 

</p><p>Biblical typology is most evident in the work of Henry Holman Hunt (1827-1910), whose <i>The Shadow of Death</i> (1870-3, Manchester City Art Galleries), in which Christ the carpenter holds up his arms in the attitude of crucifixion, is comparable with the pose of Christ in Stanhope's painting as he works the machinery of the winepress. Comparisons were made by contemporaries between Stanhope's <i>The Wine Press</i> and an earlier painting by Holman Hunt, <i>The Light of the World</i> (1851-3, Keble College, Oxford). Both works portray Christ in his offices as prophet, priest and king in their representation of the jewelled crown, the 'ehpod' or surplice worn by the Jewish High Priest, which is lined with crimson, and the white undergarment representing the spotless humanity of Christ. However, Stirling denied any suggestion that her uncle had been influenced by Hunt's representation of Christ in <i>The Light of the World</i>, declaring that 'the resemblance which critics profess to discover between the two was disclaimed by Holman Hunt himself.' (Stirling, p.335). <i>The Wine Press</i> was later also compared with the work of Simeon Solomon by one reviewer when it was shown at a retrospective exhibition of Stanhope's work at the Carfax Gallery, London in 1909 (<i>Art Journal</i>, 1909, p.158). Simeon Solomon (1840-1905) was a Jewish artist who painted biblical subjects, often from the books of the Old Testament and who was associated, like Stanhope, with the Pre-Raphaelite circle surrounding Rossetti. The art historians Martin Harrison and Bill Waters have suggested that the 'boxed-in space' of a contemporaneous work by Burne-Jones, <i>The Merciful Knight</i> (1863, Birmingham City Museums and Art Gallery) may have influenced the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of <i>The Wine Press</i> (Harrison and Waters, p.72). Burne-Jones was making sketches for the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> background in <i>The Merciful Knight</i> during a visit to Stanhope's house in Cobham, Surrey, while Stanhope was at work on <i>The Wine Press</i>. 

</p><p>Another version of <i>The Wine Press</i>, painted on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a>, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gouache" title="Glossary definition for 'Gouache'"><span>gouache</span></a> and gold paint and which pre-dates the Tate oil painting, is in the Lanigan Collection, Canada. This work, <i>The Wine Press</i> (c.1863-4), was bought by George Rae of Birkenhead, an industrialist and well-known collector of Pre-Raphaelite painting. Although the composition is essentially the same, the earlier version is simpler in design and does not possess the fine detail and hard outlines of the Tate work.  

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>A.M.W. Stirling, <i>A Painter of Dreams And Other Biographical Studies</i>, London 1916, 335, 340, reproduced fly leaf, plate 1.<br/>Martin Harrison and Bill Waters, <i>Burne-Jones</i>, London 1989, p.72, p.180, reproduced p.72, no.93.<br/>Dennis Lanigan and Douglas Schoenherr, <i>A Dream of The Past: Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Movement Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings from The Lanigan Collection</i>, exhibition catalogue, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto 2000, pp.211-4.<br/> <br/>Rebecca Virag<br/>July 2001 <br/></p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>This pictures illustrates the line from the Book  of Isiah inscribed on the frame. Stanhope worked  alongside Burne-Jones in the Oxford Union building  during the project to dcorate its walls with  scenes from the 'Morte d'Arthur'. Burne-Jones  later reflected 'His colour was beyond any the  finest in Europe; an exceptional turn for  <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> he had too - quite individual. Rossetti  was in a perfect state of enthusiasm about it -  that was how he got to know him'.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults agriculture and fishing agriculture, gardening & fishing arm / arms raised Bible: Old Testament cloak clothing and personal items crown Crucifixion - man, arms raised food and drink fruit, grape fruit-pressing Isiah, chapter 63 man objects people religion and belief religious religious and ceremonial symbols and personifications wine press work and occupations