Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<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>
April Love
Purchased 1909
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
arbour
architecture
birth to death
clothing and personal items
crouching
emotional states and conditions
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
Foord, Tryphena
garden structures
individuals: female
individuals: male
ivy
life, everlasting - ivy
lilac
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
love
love, transient - fallen petals
man
Munro, Alexander
named individuals
objects
people
plants and flowers
portraits
rose
sadness
shawl
standing
symbols and personifications
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, ‘The Miller’s Daughter’
weeping
woman
<p>Hughes’s painting shows a moment of tension between a young couple. The woman turns away from the barely visible male figure, bent over her left hand. Like many Victorian artists, Hughes used the language of flowers in his work. The overgrown ivy that also decorates the frame signifies loyalty and eternal life, and roses, love. The petals strewn on the floor may reflect that the love affair has been strained, but the ivy suggests a positive outcome. It is thought that Tryphena Ford modelled for the painting. Hughes married Ford, ‘his early and only love’, in 1855, the year he made this painting.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
3 June 2004 – 15 May 2005
2005-05-15
3 June 2004 – 30 August 2004
2004-08-30
2004-06-03
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
1 October 2004 – 6 February 2005
2005-02-06
2004-10-01
Ulster Museum (Belfast, UK)
http://www.ulstermuseum.org.uk
15 March 2005 – 15 May 2005
2005-05-15
2005-03-15
Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
2004-06-03
Art of the Garden
Exhibition
1 August 2005 – 30 July 2007
2007-07-30
1 August 2005
2005-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-08-01
The Pre-Raphaelites
Collection based display
6 October 2007 – 27 January 2008
2008-01-27
6 October 2007 – 27 January 2008
2008-01-27
2007-10-06
Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
2007-10-06
Art Treasures Revisited
Loan-out
1 June 2009 – 28 August 2009
2009-08-28
1 June 2009 – 28 August 2009
2009-08-28
2009-06-01
Usher Gallery (Lincoln, UK)
http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk
2009-06-01
Alfred Lord Tennyson Bi-Centenary
Loan-out
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
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)
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
17 February 2013 – 31 August 2014
2014-08-31
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
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)
2013-02-17
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Loan-out
18 June 2014 – 7 September 2014
2014-09-07
18 June 2014 – 7 September 2014
2014-09-07
2014-06-18
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2014-06-18
Colour
Loan-out
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
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)
2018-12-14
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Tate partnerships & programmes
21 September 2023 – 18 February 2024
2024-02-18
21 September 2023 – 18 February 2024
2024-02-18
2023-09-21
Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK)
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/
2023-09-21
Colour Revolution: Turner to Whistler
Loan-out
April Love
support: 889 × 495 mm
frame: 1084 × 693 × 75 mm
Purchased 1909
<p>This is Hughes's best-known work, and one of the most popular of all <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> <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>paintings</span></a>. When it was exhibited at the Royal <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/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a> in 1856, the accompanying catalogue contained a quotation from one of the songs in Tennyson's 'The Miller's Daughter', in which the young lovers fear the passing of their love: 'Love is hurt with jar and fret, | Love is made a sweet regret; | Eyes with idle tears are wet, | Idle habits link us yet. | What is love? for we forget: | Ah, no! no!'
</p><p>
The painting was not conceived as an illustration to the poem, but rather the verse reinforced Hughes's depiction of fragile young love. Hughes changed the setting from a millstream with chestnut trees and forget-me-nots to an ivy-clad arbour or summerhouse with lilac outside the window and rose petals on the stone floor. As with many of the artist's works, ivy is also used to decorate the frame. The Pre-Raphaelites often included symbolic elements in their work. Ivy signifies everlasting life, roses love. That the petals are strewn on the floor may suggest the love affair has ended. <em>April Love</em> was the first of a number of <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>compositions</span></a> in which Hughes depicted lovers in 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/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a>. It shows the influence of <em>A Huguenot</em>, 1852 (private collection) and <em>Ferdinand Lured by Ariel</em>, 1849 (private collection) by Millais, whom Hughes greatly admired. The rich blues, greens and purples employed by Hughes quickly became his trade mark.
</p><p>
On 26 November 1855 Hughes married 'his early and only love' Tryphena Foord.  Tryphena's father managed a decorating business owned by Robert Cutbush, whose brother Thomas Robert Cutbush probably owned the garden at Maidstone in which, according to Robert Ross, <em>April Love</em> was painted (<em>Burlington Magazine</em>, vol.28, February 1916, p.171). Much of the painting, however, appears to have been done at 6 Upper Belgrave Place, London, where Hughes shared a studio with 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/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptor</span></a> Alexander Munro, said to have been the model for the man in the picture (letter from Margaret Munro, 20 August 1959, in Tate Gallery files). According to Hughes's pupil Albert Goodwin, writing in 1916, the face of the girl was originally modelled from a country girl, but she disliked the way Hughes was painting her and left. The final model was probably Tryphena. 
</p><p>
The painting was known by several titles prior to its exhibition as <em>April Love</em>. Ford Madox Brown wrote in his diary on 9 September 1855: 'Last night I had the mulligrubs &amp; went for the first time to Munnros &amp; saw Hughes picture of the Lovers quarrel - it is very beautiful indeed. The girl is lovely, draperies &amp; all, but the greens of his foliage were so acid that made my mulligrubs worse I do think' (V. Surtees, ed., <em>The Diary of Ford Madox Brown</em>, New Haven and London 1981, p.153). Hughes, writing to the poet William Allingham, recalled the latter's suggestion that it should be called <em>Hide and Seek</em>: 'You remember the picture of a girl you saw unfinished ( and suggested my calling "Hide and Seek" (  now completed and rejoicing in the more graceful title of "April Love." Ruskin saw, went into enthusiastic admiration, and brought his Father to try to induce him to purchase it, but alas fate willed otherwise' (H. Allingham and E. Baumer Williams, eds., <em>Letters to William Allingham</em>, London 1911, p.62). Ruskin continued to express enthusiasm for the picture, however, calling it in his <em>Academy Notes</em> for 1856 'Exquisite in every way; lovely in colour, most subtle in the quivering expression of the lips, and sweetness of the tender face, shaken, like a leaf by winds upon its dew, and hesitating back into peace (Cook &amp; Wedderburn, eds., <em>The Works of John Ruskin</em>, XIV, London 1904, p.68). The picture was bought at the Royal Academy exhibition by the designer William Morris, who wrote to Edward Burne-Jones on 17 May asking him to 'do me a great favour, viz. go and nobble that picture called "April Love" as soon as possible lest anybody else should buy it' (G. Burne-Jones, <em>Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones</em>, London 1904, I, p.132). At the end of his life Hughes still remembered Burne-Jones arriving at Upper Belgrave Place with Morris's cheque: 'My chief feeling then was surprise at an Oxford student buying pictures' (<em>Pall Mall Gazette</em>, 13 July 1912). 
</p><p>
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/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> and wash sketch, <em>Studies for 'April Love'</em>, is in the Tate Gallery (Tate Gallery <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/T00276" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'T00276');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>T00276</span></a>). Hughes also made a quarter-size replica in oil.
</p><p>
<strong>Further reading:</strong><br/>
Leslie Parris (ed.), <em>The Pre-Raphaelites</em>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.137-8, reproduced in colour<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/>
December 1997


</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Hughes’s painting shows a moment of tension between a young couple. The woman turns away from the barely visible male figure, bent over her left hand.  Like many Victorian artists, Hughes used the language of flowers in his work. The overgrown ivy that also decorates the frame signifies loyalty and eternal life, and roses, love. The petals strewn on the floor may reflect that the love affair has been strained, but the ivy suggests a positive outcome.  It is thought that Tryphena Ford modelled for the painting. Hughes married Ford, ‘his early and only love’, in 1855, the year he made this painting.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-11-14T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults arbour architecture birth to death clothing and personal items crouching emotional states and conditions emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas Foord, Tryphena garden structures individuals: female individuals: male ivy life, everlasting - ivy lilac literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) love love, transient - fallen petals man Munro, Alexander named individuals objects people plants and flowers portraits rose sadness shawl standing symbols and personifications Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, ‘The Miller’s Daughter’ weeping woman