Sir William Quiller Orchardson, 1832–1910, British
Title:
The Story of a Life
Date:
1866
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
37 x 60 1/4 inches (94 x 153 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1989.10
Gallery Label:
William Quiller Orchardson specialized in narrative scenes often charged with psychological drama. In this early example he illustrates verses that are inscribed on the back of the painting in which “Sister Monica” recalls her youth and her disappointment in love. She extols the safety of the convent walls as a protection against betrayal: “‘O my children,’ she is saying, and her voice is like a dream, ‘Trust not the light that men call love; ‘tis but a phantom gleam.’” Some of the novices appear unconvinced by Sister Monica’s story, though others appear content with their new life. Their ambivalent responses mirror contemporary attitudes toward convent life, encompassing a general Protestant distaste for Catholicism as well as hostility to the recently revived religious orders within Anglicanism. Convents were variously seen as either solving or aggravating the difficult problem of “redundant” women who did not fulfill the Victorian feminine ideal as wives and mothers. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016