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Lot Essay
The picture is described by Paul Delaney as 'one of (the artist's) most original and successful works'. It is also said to have been admired by W.B. Yeats, a close friend of Ricketts to whose influence the poet attributed his 'artistic education'. It was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1914 and sold in particularly gratifying circumstances. 'Called at the Grosvenor', Ricketts noted in his journal on 28 April, 'It seems the purchaser of my picture is Lady Cowdray; that at the moment she was discussing the acquisition of the work, the visitors for the Chantrey Bequest were announced, and fearing the picture might be purchased by them she bought it on the spot. This enchants me!' But for Lady Cowdray's quick thinking, the picture might have been in Tate Britain today rather than on the market.
Ricketts was fascinated by the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, illustrating it time and again. A different composition of 1900 is recorded (see Lewis, op. cit., p. 29), and a version of the present work was exhibited and sold in Japan in 1918. His sympathies lay with the Foolish Virgins, whose heedless behaviour appealed to his own love of recklessness and distrust of prudence. His mentor Oscar Wilde thought similarly, and in Beyond the Threshold, a collection of essays influenced by Wilde that Ricketts published in 1929, he retold the parable, making the Foolish Virgins the heroines.
The subject also appealed to Ricketts's lifelong companion, Charles Shannon. He too treated it more than once, notably in a large painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1920 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; see The Last Romantics, exh. Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1989, cat. pp. 158-9, no. 257, illustrated). Both artists saw themselves working in the Pre-Raphaelite tradition, and the fact that the parable had inspired at least two leading members of the movement was obviously relevant. Burne-Jones had handled it in a meticulous pen-and-ink drawing of 1859 (sold in these Rooms on 24 November 2004, lot 8), while Millais had devoted two designs to it in his famous Parables of Our Lord (1864).
Ricketts was fascinated by the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, illustrating it time and again. A different composition of 1900 is recorded (see Lewis, op. cit., p. 29), and a version of the present work was exhibited and sold in Japan in 1918. His sympathies lay with the Foolish Virgins, whose heedless behaviour appealed to his own love of recklessness and distrust of prudence. His mentor Oscar Wilde thought similarly, and in Beyond the Threshold, a collection of essays influenced by Wilde that Ricketts published in 1929, he retold the parable, making the Foolish Virgins the heroines.
The subject also appealed to Ricketts's lifelong companion, Charles Shannon. He too treated it more than once, notably in a large painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1920 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; see The Last Romantics, exh. Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1989, cat. pp. 158-9, no. 257, illustrated). Both artists saw themselves working in the Pre-Raphaelite tradition, and the fact that the parable had inspired at least two leading members of the movement was obviously relevant. Burne-Jones had handled it in a meticulous pen-and-ink drawing of 1859 (sold in these Rooms on 24 November 2004, lot 8), while Millais had devoted two designs to it in his famous Parables of Our Lord (1864).