Graphite and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Rossetti and his Friends
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-max-beerbohm-722" aria-label="More by Sir Max Beerbohm" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Max Beerbohm</a>
Sole Remark Likely to Have Been Made by Benjamin Jowett about Mural Paintings at Oxford Union
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
adults
architecture
art and craft
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
caricature
educational and scientific
England
England, South East
England, Southern
features
fine arts and music
groups
hall
interiors
Jowett, Benjamin
ladder
leisure and pastimes
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
mahlstick
Malory, Thomas, Sir, ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’
man
mural
named groups
named individuals
objects
Oxford, Oxford University
Oxfordshire
paintbrush
painting
painting materials
people
places
portraits
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
professor
public and municipal
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
social comment
society
tools and machinery
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
window
work and occupations
<p>Beerbohm caricatured people and events associated with the charismatic Rossetti in a series of watercolours called 'Rossetti and his Friends'. This watercolour recalls the summer of 1857, when Rossetti led a troupe of young artists, including Morris and Burne-Jones, to Oxford. There they painted the walls of the newly-completed Union building with scenes from Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Beerbohm shows Rossetti at work on Sir Launcelot's Vision of the Sanc Grael, for which Burne-Jones posed as Sir Launcelot. Also shown is Benjamin Jowett, an Oxford professor of classics famous for his pithy remarks.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite watercolour
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
2002-01-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-01-21
Rossetti and Medievalism
Collection based display
The Sole Remark Likely to Have Been Made by Benjamin Jowett about the Mural Paintings at the Oxford Union
support: 451 × 298 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
<p>Beerbohm <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/caricature" title="Glossary definition for 'Caricature'"><span>caricatured</span></a> people and events associated with the charismatic Rossetti  in a series 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/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a> called 'Rossetti and his Friends'. This watercolour recalls  the summer of 1857, when Rossetti led  a troupe of young artists, including Morris  and Burne-Jones, to Oxford. There they painted the walls of the newly-completed Union building with scenes from Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Beerbohm shows Rossetti at work on Sir Launcelot's Vision  of the Sanc Grael, for which Burne-Jones posed as Sir Launcelot. Also shown is Benjamin Jowett, an Oxford professor  of classics famous for his pithy remarks.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beerbohm-the-sole-remark-likely-to-have-been-made-by-benjamin-jowett-about-the-mural-a01041" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A01041</span></a>	[from] ROSSETTI AND HIS FRIENDS (TWENTY-THREE DRAWINGS) 1916–17 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beerbohm-d-g-rossetti-precociously-manifesting-that-queer-indifference-to-politics-a01038" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A01038</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beerbohm-the-name-of-dante-gabriel-rossetti-is-heard-for-the-first-time-in-the-western-a01060" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A01060</span></a>; complete]
<br/> 
<br/>Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Mrs Charles Hunter; from whom purchased by the Leicester Galleries; from whom purchased by Sir Hugh Walpole 1921.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Lynch, 1921, pp.146–50.</p>
<p>A series of twenty-three <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>, variously dated 1916 and 1917. Fifteen were lent by Mrs Charles Hunter to the <i>Modern Loan Exhibition</i>, Grosvenor Gallery, November 1917 (98); the complete series was first exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, September 1921 (1), in the order in which they are given here, again as <i>Rossetti and his Friends</i>. They were published in book form by Heinemann in 1922 as <i>Rossetti and His Circle</i>, possibly an allusion to Rossetti's <i>Dante and His Circle</i>, the second edition of his translations from the early Italian poets, published in 1874. The complete series of drawings was further exhibited in <i><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> and Drawings of the 1860 Period</i>, Tate Gallery, April–July 1923 (336), and was on loan to the Tate Gallery from June 1938. For further details, see below (artists represented in the collection will be fully discussed in the appropriate section of the catalogue).</p>
<p>(iv) Inscr. ‘The sole remark likely to have been made by Benjamin Jowett about the mural paintings at the Oxford Union: “And what were they going to do with the Grail when they found it, Mr Rossetti?”’ and ‘Max 1916’ b.r. Pencil and watercolour, 17 1/2×11 1/4 (45×30).
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Grosvenor Gallery, November 1917 (98, 2); Leicester Galleries, September 1921 (4); Tate Gallery, April–July 1923 (336, 4); <i>Hugh Walpole's Collection</i>, French Gallery, May–June 1937 (21); on loan to the Tate Gallery from June 1938.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Rossetti and His Circle</i>, 1922, pl.4 (in colour).</p>
<p>Rossetti, with friends and disciples, began the decoration of the Debating Hall of the Oxford Union with subjects from the story of ‘King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table’ in 1857; the scene shown is Rossetti's ‘Sir Launcelot's Vision of the Sangrael’. The decorations, made in distemper over a coat of whitewash applied to the bare wall, have practically disappeared. (See W. Holman Hunt, <i>Oxford Union Society: The Story of the Painting of the Pictures ... in the Years 1857–8–9, 1906</i>; Rossetti's picture repr. pl.3.) Benjamin Jowett (1817–93), Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford and Master of Balliol College, was at one time strongly suspected of heresy, though he always remained within the Church.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture art and craft artist, painter arts and entertainment caricature educational and scientific England England, South East England, Southern features fine arts and music groups hall interiors Jowett, Benjamin ladder leisure and pastimes literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) mahlstick Malory, Thomas, Sir, ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ man mural named groups named individuals objects Oxford, Oxford University Oxfordshire paintbrush painting painting materials people places portraits Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood professor public and municipal Rossetti, Dante Gabriel social comment society tools and machinery UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions window work and occupations