The Theodore Watts-Dunton Pair of Oak Wall Mirrors: Sir Launcelot's Vision of the Sanc Grael (Sir Launcelot Prevented by his Sin from entering the Chapel of the Sanc Grael)
Henry Treffry Dunn (Truro 1838 - 1899)
Category
Mirrors
Date
circa 1896 - circa 1898
Materials
Oak, paint and silvered glass
Measurements
568 x 790 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1288277.1
Summary
Oak, paint and silvered glass, The Theodore Watts-Dunton Pair of Oak Wall Mirrors:Sir Launcelot's Vision of the Sanc Grael (Sir Launcelot Prevented by his Sin from entering the Chapel of the Sanc Grael). An oak wall mirror with two circular plates set in panel painted with scenes from the Holy Grail by Henry Treffry Dunn (Truro 1838 - 1899), circa 1896-98. An arched frame carved with jousting tournement, rural landscapes surmounted by the heads of medieval King and Queen. The paintings record part of the lost decorations of the Oxford Union by Rossetti. This was the only subject which Rossetti painted onto the Union wall, but he did not complete it. Dunn's version differs significantly both from the mural (Surtees No. 93) and from the watercolour study (Surtees No. 93A, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) in various ways including having figures holding candles in the lower left corner below the Angel rather than the group of angels around and above. Dunn owned Rossetti's ink study for the central figure of Guenevere (Surtees No. 93C, Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery). She represents the sin of adultery which prevents Launcelot from attaining the Sanc Grael.
Provenance
Commissioned by Theodore Watts-Dunton; Clara Watts-Dunton; Watts-Dunton sale at 2 The Pines, Putney, Sotheby's, 22nd March 1939; bought by Sir Geoffrey Mander; transferred to the National Trust on the death of Sir Geoffrey Le Mesurier Mander (1882-1962)
Makers and roles
Henry Treffry Dunn (Truro 1838 - 1899), artist
References
Douglas 1904 James Douglas, Theodore Watts-Dunton, 1904, ill. facing p 92.