RETURN FROM CALVARY

Original 1893 10 3/8 inch x 7 3/8 inch Etching titled THE RETURN FROM CALVARY

The picture works on several levels. In the foregound can be seen the distraught figure of the Virgin Mary, with St John and Mary Magdalene. Beyond them two more women can be seen, one of them looking back at the city of Jerusalem with Mount Golgotha in the far distance. The whole scene is overshadowed by dark storm clouds, but there is a light breaking through symbolic of events to come.

From the painting by Herbert Gustave Schmalz (1856 – 1935). An English painter born in England to the German Consul, Gustave Schmalz, and his English wife, Margaret Carmichael. He received a conventional education in painting, first at the South Kensington Art School and later at the Royal Academy of Arts, where he studied with Frank Dicksee, Stanhope Forbes and Arthur Hacker. He perfected his studies in Antwerp at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After his return to London he made a name for himself as a history painter, with a style influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and orientalism. In 1884 he successfully exhibited his painting “Too Late” at the Royal Academy. After a voyage to Jerusalem in 1890 he made a series of paintings with New Testament topics, with Return from Calvary (1891) one of the best known.

Inscription under the image: Photo. Aquantinte – The Art Journal – Boussod, Valadon & Co. Paris.

THE RETURN FROM CALVARY – BY HERBERT SCHMALZ.

The above is a portion only of the design of the original, and appears by permission of Mr. Arthur Licas & Messrs Dowdeswells, the joint owners of the copyright.

Printed by James Sprent Virtue & Co. Limited.

Published in the Art Journal 1893

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

The etching is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.