Acrasia is the magical enchantress in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, the sixteenth century poet’s masterpiece (Book II). The poem, published with the help of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1570, was a symbolic glorification of Queen Elizabeth I, England, and the English language. Spencer was a popular inspiration for nineteenth century painters(1) and the chivalric quest of the knights in The Faerie Queene provided many Pre-Raphaelite painters with subjects.(2) Book II is an allegory which illustrates the virtue of temperance, in which the valiant fairy knight Sir Guyon sets out on a quest to destroy the Bower of Bliss, a garden of tempting earthly delights. This mesmerising work is a vision of Acrasia kneeling with her victim in the garden of the Bower of Bliss. Like the sorceress Circe who turned Ulysses’s men into swine and whom Strudwick had painted two years before,(3) Acrasia seduced men and transformed them into beasts. The defeated knight, who has succumbed to Acrasia’s charms and sipped her fatal potion, lies listlessly in her arms, at her mercy. His armour is scattered with rose blossoms, his shield rests futilely in the branches, and his sword lays idle upon the ground. Beyond the bower, a lake glistens in a golden sunset. From amongst the branches of the apple trees, Acrasia’s handmaidens sing a haunting melody along to the melodious chords of their lutes and harps. Music became the most important metaphor of the Aesthetic Movement, echoing the direct way in which the design and colour of paintings struck the viewer’s emotions and senses. Like Whistler, Rossetti and Burne-Jones, Strudwick alludes to music in his paintings throughout his career.(4) In Acrasia the artist appeals to all the senses and inspires the imagination to explore the rich textures of the forest, the subtle perfume of roses, and the melodic voices of Acrasia’s handmaids. In fading daylight, the soft delicate colour harmonies, created in the Pre-Raphaelite manner by layers of pure glazes, glow and seduce. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Strudwick’s teacher in the 1870's, had fallen, at this time, deeper and deeper into his beautiful romantic dream, a fantasy far removed from what he perceived as the ugliness of Victorian England. With visions of medieval Italy in mind, Burne-Jones, at the height of his powers, had set up a Renaissance style workshop in which Strudwick and other assistants worked under his supervision on monumental romantic cycles. One of these cycles; the Briar Rose Series, which was based upon Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, was the ultimate expression of his dream and was in progress throughout Strudwick’s employment. There is little doubt that this great work, in which knights in armour sleep forever within the thorny briars of an enchanted castle, was in part the inspiration for Acrasia. Strudwick’s knight closely echoes the pose of the left-hand knight in the first picture of the series, which was completed in 1870. Acrasia was a crucial work for Strudwick, painted for and shown at the first exhibition at the New Gallery, which had opened its doors that year on Regent Street. It was undoubtedly Burne-Jones who had encouraged his pupil to exhibit there, for he had himself transferred his allegiance, disappointed with the falling standards of the Grosvenor Galleries. The Magazine of Art of that year honours this new venue in an article: All that architectural taste and skill could achieve has been done to render it a pleasant place to lounge in. The pictures are hung only two deep, and never crowded, so that every one can be seen to advantage and without effort. Then there is the delightful vestibule, with its marble pillars and its pretty fountain, which give Mr. Robson’s building an air of luxury unparalleled elsewhere in London. It goes on to pay tribute to Strudwick’s exhibit: Of those artists who follow in the footsteps of Mr. Burne-Jones, Mr. J. M. Strudwick is by far the most successful. His Acrasia is conceived in a decorative spirit, and every detail is faithfully executed.(5) Strudwick’s paintings are exceptionally rare. He was arguably the most accomplished of all Burne-Jones's studio assistants, however his lapidary style, derived from the Italian Quattrocento, required a painstaking technique which was intensely time consuming. Three years after the completion of Acrasia, in his celebratory article written in the Art Journal on Strudwick, George Bernard Shaw praises how transcendent expressiveness is the moving quality in all Strudwick's works and persons who are sensitive to it will take almost as a matter of course the charm of the architecture, the bits of landscape, the elaborately beautiful foliage, the ornamental accessories of all sorts, which would distinguish them even in a gallery of early Italian paintings. He has been accused of imitating the men of that period, especially one painter whose works are only to be seen in Italy, whither he has never travelled. But there is nothing of the fourteenth century about his work except that depth of feeling and passion for beauty which are common property for all who are fortunate enough to inherit them...(6) Percy Bate also praises Strudwick’s work in his important overview, English Pre-Raphaelite Painters, enthusing: Strudwick’s pictures speak for themselves…He spares no labour of invention or of craftsmanship that may make his works as perfect as he desires. He would almost seem to possess the soul of a medieval illuminator working with the hands of a thoroughly accomplished artist of today…. Delicate, dainty and fervent, obviously the creations of a poet, the pictures of Strudwick are distinguished by an execution as complete and detailed as the conception; and yet, despite all the charmingly decorative, these pictures are evidently the achievement of a man with high and a very definite ideal. That ideal he expresses to perfection, and what more may be asked of an artist?(7) 1. For example Mary Raphael, Britomart and Amoret, 1898. 2. Christopher Wood, Fairies in Victorian Art, Antique Collectors Club 2000, page 26 3. Circe and Scylla, 1886 Sudley Art Gallery, Liverpool 4. These include A Symphony, The Gentle Music of a Bygone Day (1890, Private Collection), Thy Tuneful Strings Wake Memories, When Apples were Golden (1906, Manchester City Art Gallery) and St Cecilia (1897, private collection). 5. Magazine of Art, 1888, page 300 6. George Bernard Shaw, J.M. Strudwick, Art Journal, (1891), page 101. 7. Percy H. Bate, The English Pre-Raphaelite Painters, Their Associates and Successors, London, George Bell and Sons, 1899, page 114
Fine Art Society, London Sir Tim Rice The Pre-Raphaelite Trust Private Collection; to 2003
London, New Gallery, 1888
The Magazine of Art, 1888, page 300 Henry Blackburn (editor), The New Gallery, Illustrated Catalogue, Chatto & Windus London May 1888, page 10, illustrated: No. 9 'Acrasia' J. M. STRUDWICK. One of the most elaborate works in the gallery. A knight in black armour lies asleep, his head resting in the lap of a dark-haired woman; roses are strewn over him, and a silver goblet has fallen from his hand; girls with musical instruments are partly seen behind the foliage. Note the delicate painting of the draperies and leaves, and the elaboration of detail throughout the picture.