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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/arthur-hughes-283" aria-label="More by Arthur Hughes" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Arthur Hughes</a>
Eve St Agnes
Bequeathed by Mrs Emily Toms in memory of her father, Joseph Kershaw 1931
actions: processes and functions
adults
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bed
bedroom
couple
diseases and conditions
domestic
domestic
drunkenness
elopement
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Gothic
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Keats, John, ‘The Eve of St Agnes’
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period: Middle Ages
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<p>This work was based on John Keats's poem <span>The Eve of St Agnes</span> (1820), inspired by the folk belief that a woman can see her future husband in a dream if she performs certain rites the day before the feast of St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins. The frame is inscribed with the fourth verse of the poem, which sets the scene for the three episodes which Hughes depicts. First, Porphyro defies Madeleine’s family to approach the castle, where a banquet is in progress. He then awakens Madeline from her dreams. Finally, the lovers silently escape from the dark castle into the night.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2022</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
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
10 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
15 September 2012 – 31 January 2013
2013-01-31
15 September 2012 – 31 January 2013
2013-01-31
2012-09-15
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.bmag.org.uk
2012-09-15
Love and Death: Victorian Paintings from Tate
Loan-out
17 February 2013 – 31 August 2014
2014-08-31
10 June 2013 – 13 October 2013
2013-10-13
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2013-02-17
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Loan-out
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
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
18 October 2019 – 27 September 2020
2020-09-27
18 October 2019 – 1 February 2020
2020-02-01
2019-10-18
Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts
2019-10-18
Beyond Brotherhood: The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy
Loan-out
The Eve of St Agnes
support: 710 × 1245 mm
frame: 1010 × 1545 × 100 mm
Bequeathed by Mrs Emily Toms in memory of her father, Joseph Kershaw 1931
<p>The prototype for this work was William Holman Hunt's 1848 <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>, <em>The Flight of
Madeline and Porphyro during the Drunkenness Attending the Revelry (The Eve of St Agnes) </em> (Guildhall Art Gallery, Corporation of London), based on Keats's <em>Eve of St Agnes</em> (published 1820). Hughes's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/triptych" title="Glossary definition for 'Triptych'"><span>triptych</span></a> depicts three scenes from
Keats's poem: Porphyro's approach to the castle (left), the awakening of Madeline (centre), and the lovers' stealthy escape over the drunken porter (right). The following lines from the poem are written in paint at the bottom of the original gold
frame:</p><blockquote>	They told her how, upon St Agnes' Eve,<br/>	Young virgins might have visions of delight,<br/>	And soft adorings from their loves receive<br/>	Upon the honey'd middle of the night.<br/>	If ceremonies due they did aright,<br/>	And
supperless to bed they must retire,<br/>	And couch supine their beauties lily white,<br/>	Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require<br/>	Of heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire.</blockquote>Although painted on one <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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, each of the three
scenes has been signed and dated. A small, undated oil version 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> exists in three sections, mounted as a triptych (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). The Ashmolean version is similar in composition to the Tate's painting, with the exception of
the left scene. The Ashmolean triptych portrays a later incident, that of Porphyro's meeting with the aged Angela at the portal doors.<p>When this picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856, the critic John Ruskin wrote of it in his <em>Academy
Notes</em>, 'A noble picture, apparently too hastily finished, and very wrongly put into this room ... The half-entranced, half-startled, face of the awakening Madeline is exquisite'(Cook and Wedderburn, eds., <em>The Works of John Ruskin</em>, XIV,
London 1904, p.70). Rossetti felt that the picture would 'make [Hughes's] fortune' (letter from Rossetti to William Allingham, quoted in O. Doughty and J.R. Wahl, eds., <em>Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti</em>, I, Oxford 1965,
p.300).</p><p><strong>Further reading:</strong><br/>Timothy Hilton, <em>The Pre-Raphaelites</em>, London 1970, pp.113-15, reproduced<br/>Leonard Roberts, introduction by Stephen Wildman, <em>Arthur Hughes: His Life and Works, a Catalogue Raisonné</em>,
Woodbridge, Suffolk [to be published 1997]</p><p>Terry Riggs<br/>November 1997<!-- end text --></p>
Summary
2005-12-16T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This work shows three moments from a Romantic poem, John Keats’ ‘Eve of St Agnes’. The poem was a favourite of the Pre-Raphaelite artists. Porphyro, hated by the family of his lover, Madeline, sneaks into her bedroom on St Agnes Eve, a day believed to make young women dream of their true love. Madeleine’s dream becomes a reality when Porphyro wakes her, and together they escape from the castle. The characters’ poses and the stained glass are similar to medieval Biblical paintings about the angel Gabriel announcing Jesus’ arrival to his mother, Mary.</p>
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Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: processes and functions adults architecture bed bedroom couple diseases and conditions domestic domestic drunkenness elopement features furnishings Gothic hallway history inscriptions interiors Keats, John, ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man medieval night objects palace people period: Middle Ages periods and styles poem politics and society residential servant sex and relationships sleeping society symbols and personifications times of the day window, stained glass woman work and occupations