KNIGHT ERRANT

Original 1893 10 1/4 inch x 7 3/8 inch Engraving titled THE KNIGHT ERRANT.

The moonlit scene apparently depicts an act of medieval chivalry in which one such Knight errant, clad in armour, is on the point of freeing a woman who has been stripped and tied to a tree. The tree, a Silver Birch, was commonly identified with the female gender in the nineteenth century and was sometimes referred to as ‘Lady Birch’. Birch twigs were also traditionally used in flagellation. The woman’s clothes lie on the ground to the left and her molesters, assumed to be robbers by one critic, are seen fleeing the scene in the top right corner of the canvas. There is blood on the Knight’s sword and the torso of a dead man is visible behind him.

After John Everett Millais (1829 – 1896). Genre painter, etcher, designer of wood-engravings and watercolourist; founder and chief member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; President of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Published in the Art Journal 1893

Page size 12 1/2 inch x 9 1/4 inch

The print is in very good condition. Printed text on the reverse.