Studio: international art (21.1901)

Ralph Peacock and his Work

pictures that Mr. Peacock has painted. In a little and its poison, the honey was apt to cloy, the Dead
while it will be hung in the Tate Collection, for Sea apple was almost entirely filled with dust, and
the artist has presented it to our National Gallery the clay was of the tough, primeval kind, difficult to
of British Art. blend with advantage, and impossible to eliminate."

The title of the painting reproduced in colours— Struck with this passage—(we may suppose, I
A rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, and a daresay, that Mr. Smart is himself the Persian
handful of clay—(Die Falsche) needs a few words of poet)—Mr. Peacock attempted to paint such a
explanation. It was taken, with the omission of four type of youthful womanhood as should not be at
words, from a line in the following passage in Mr. variance with the spirit of its meaning. But the
William Smart's monograph on "Fair Women in choice of title is really a matter of but little import-
Painting and Poetry," that bears the date 1894 :— ance, for the picture itself is quite pleasing enough,

"In the beginning, said a Persian poet, Allah when viewed as a work of art, not to need a name,
took a rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, To this picture, in 1898, a gold medal was awarded
a Dead Sea apple, and a handful of clay. When He at the International Jubilee Exhibition in Vienna,
looked at the amalgam it was woman. Then He Mr. Peacock's art in portraiture, now so varied
thought He would resolve these constituents. But and so meritorious, is represented in this article by
it was too late. Adam
had taken her to wife,
and humanity had begun.
Woman, moreover, had
learned her first lesson :
conveyed in the parable
of the rib. Thus early
did the male imagination
begin to weave a delight-
ful web for its own de-
lectation and advantage.
When, after a time, the
daughters of Eve con-
vinced the sons of Adam
that a system of dual con-
trol would have to be put
into effect, there was much
questioning and heart-
burning. Satan availed
himself of the opportunity.
He took man aside, and
explained to him that
woman had been reason-
less and precipitate, that
she had tempted him
before she was ripe, and
that he was a genial inno-
cent and very much to be
pitied. Further, he
demonstrated that if she
had only waited a little,
all would have been well.
But, as it was, the rose
had a thorn, the lily had
a tendency to be fragile,
the dove had not lost its
timidity, the serpent had ii0pe) daughter of by ralph peacock

retained its guile, its fangs, r. e. prothero, esq."

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