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Lot Essay
Yeames was born in Taganrog in Southern Russia, where his father was British Consul. He came to England at the age of thirteen and studied under the sculptor Richard Westmacott, then spent six years in Italy before settling in London and making his debut at the Royal Academy in 1859. He remained a regular contributor, becoming an Associate in 1866 and a full Academician in 1878. For many years he was a member of the St John's Wood Clique, together with P.H. Calderon, H.S. Marks, G.D. Leslie, D.W. Wynfield and G.A. Storey. He could turn his hand to most types of painting, including portraits and landscape, but he made his name with elaborate reconstructions of historical events, both real and imaginary. And when did you last see your father? (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), exhibited at the Academy in 1878, is by far the most famous.
The present picture, shown at the R.A. in 1863, is an early work, and tighter in handling than the familiar masterpiece. It shows the scene outside the Tower of London when Sir Thomas More returned from his trial in Westminster Hall on 1 July 1535. He had been indicted for high treason on the grounds that he refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII head of the English Church, and the validity of the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was found guilty and condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, a sentence later commuted to beheading on Tower Hill. His children were waiting for him as he came from Westminster, and after he had blessed them, his daughter Margaret Roper broke through the crowd and armed guard to embrace him, receiving 'his fatherly blessing' again, and 'many godly words of comfort besides'. More had already been in the Tower since April 1534, awaiting trial. Suffering much from ill health, he was kept in prison for another few days, being executed at nine o'clock on the morning of 6 July. He wrote his last letter to Margaret the previous day, telling her that he 'never liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no liesure to look to wordly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.'
Margaret was More's oldest and favourite daughter. A woman of great erudition, she had married William Roper, a notary in the Court of King's Bench, about 1525. After More's execution, she buried his headless corpse in the family vault in Chelsea Church, and, according to one account, privately purchased his head after it had been displayed on London Bridge, preserving it in spices until her death in 1544. William outlived her until 1578. As a young man he had flirted with Lutheranism, but contact with More had caused him to return to Catholicism, and his subsequent career reflects the religious turmoil of the time. Under Queen Mary he sat in parliament, representing Rochester and Canterbury, but he fell foul of the Elizabethan privy council for allegedly giving financial support to dissidents who had fled the country and published seditious literature. Roper's chief claim to fame, however, is the biography of More that he wrote after his father-in-law's death. First published in Paris in 1626 under the title The Life, Arraignement, and Death of that Mirrour of all true Honour and Vertue, Syr Thomas More, it is the earliest biography of More, and the chief source of information concerning his private life. It is Roper who tells us of the touching encounter between More and his daughter on the Tower wharf, and Yeames quoted the passage in the R.A. catalogue.
The picture was well received. 'There are qualities of drawing and composition ...', wrote Tom Taylor in the Times, 'which justify anticipations of something higher than Mr Yeames, who has been yearly advancing, has yet attained'. F.G. Stephens, in the Athenaeum, admired 'the various and admirably defined actions and expressions', all 'high testimonies to the painter's keen perception of his subject', while the Art Journal thought it 'a well managed composition of varied incident and touching pathos...The story is simply and clearly told, and the painting sufficiently careful. This picture is the more commendable inasmuch as it relies on character and expression, and is free, with the exception perhaps of some flaunting reds, from all adventitious blandishments. Mr Yeames may be added to the list of those advancing artists who give promise to the future.' The picture probably helped to gain Yeames his Associateship three years later, just as And when did you last see your father? was responsible for his being made a full Academician in 1878.
The closest parallel to the present picture in Victorian painting is probably J.R. Herbert's scene of More and his daughter in his cell in the Tower before his trial. Also inspired by Roper's biography, the picture was exhibited at the R.A. in 1844, entered the collection of Robert Vernon, and is now in the Tate Gallery. A small version was sold by Christie's in London on 11 October 1991, lot 147.
The present picture, shown at the R.A. in 1863, is an early work, and tighter in handling than the familiar masterpiece. It shows the scene outside the Tower of London when Sir Thomas More returned from his trial in Westminster Hall on 1 July 1535. He had been indicted for high treason on the grounds that he refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII head of the English Church, and the validity of the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was found guilty and condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, a sentence later commuted to beheading on Tower Hill. His children were waiting for him as he came from Westminster, and after he had blessed them, his daughter Margaret Roper broke through the crowd and armed guard to embrace him, receiving 'his fatherly blessing' again, and 'many godly words of comfort besides'. More had already been in the Tower since April 1534, awaiting trial. Suffering much from ill health, he was kept in prison for another few days, being executed at nine o'clock on the morning of 6 July. He wrote his last letter to Margaret the previous day, telling her that he 'never liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no liesure to look to wordly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.'
Margaret was More's oldest and favourite daughter. A woman of great erudition, she had married William Roper, a notary in the Court of King's Bench, about 1525. After More's execution, she buried his headless corpse in the family vault in Chelsea Church, and, according to one account, privately purchased his head after it had been displayed on London Bridge, preserving it in spices until her death in 1544. William outlived her until 1578. As a young man he had flirted with Lutheranism, but contact with More had caused him to return to Catholicism, and his subsequent career reflects the religious turmoil of the time. Under Queen Mary he sat in parliament, representing Rochester and Canterbury, but he fell foul of the Elizabethan privy council for allegedly giving financial support to dissidents who had fled the country and published seditious literature. Roper's chief claim to fame, however, is the biography of More that he wrote after his father-in-law's death. First published in Paris in 1626 under the title The Life, Arraignement, and Death of that Mirrour of all true Honour and Vertue, Syr Thomas More, it is the earliest biography of More, and the chief source of information concerning his private life. It is Roper who tells us of the touching encounter between More and his daughter on the Tower wharf, and Yeames quoted the passage in the R.A. catalogue.
The picture was well received. 'There are qualities of drawing and composition ...', wrote Tom Taylor in the Times, 'which justify anticipations of something higher than Mr Yeames, who has been yearly advancing, has yet attained'. F.G. Stephens, in the Athenaeum, admired 'the various and admirably defined actions and expressions', all 'high testimonies to the painter's keen perception of his subject', while the Art Journal thought it 'a well managed composition of varied incident and touching pathos...The story is simply and clearly told, and the painting sufficiently careful. This picture is the more commendable inasmuch as it relies on character and expression, and is free, with the exception perhaps of some flaunting reds, from all adventitious blandishments. Mr Yeames may be added to the list of those advancing artists who give promise to the future.' The picture probably helped to gain Yeames his Associateship three years later, just as And when did you last see your father? was responsible for his being made a full Academician in 1878.
The closest parallel to the present picture in Victorian painting is probably J.R. Herbert's scene of More and his daughter in his cell in the Tower before his trial. Also inspired by Roper's biography, the picture was exhibited at the R.A. in 1844, entered the collection of Robert Vernon, and is now in the Tate Gallery. A small version was sold by Christie's in London on 11 October 1991, lot 147.