In 1912 (1) Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd. of London published an edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as no.1 of their Gravure Series. It used FitzGerald’s first version and was Potter #92 (2a), this listing concluding: “Frontis. in colours by G. A. Sheehan, four full page illus. in black., dec. borders by Garth Thomas.” The characteristic Gravure Series front cover is shown in Fig.1a (2b), and the tipped–in frontispiece & title–page in Fig.1b (2c). Note that the artist is not named on the title-page, nor anywhere else in the book for that matter, an omission shared by the rest of the series. However, Sheehan’s signature is visible in the bottom right hand corner of the colour plate, though in most copies it is far from clear, and sometimes even cropped off! With a bit of tinkering with brightness and contrast, though, a reasonably clear view of it is shown in Fig.1c. That of Garth Jones (not Thomas) is much clearer, and can be seen immediately below Sheehan’s in the decorative surround in Fig.1b. The colour plate is clearly a fairly literal representation of the famous quatrain 11 (“Here with a Loaf of Bread &c”.) The four black and white illustrations are shown in Figs.1d (“Come fill the Cup &c”), 1e (“I watch’d the Potter &c”), 1f (“An Angel Shape / Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder &c”) and 1g (“The Moving Finger writes &c.”) All these illustrations are literal depictions of the quatrains they illustrate, and require no explanation, though one does wonder if there is any hidden significance in it being Omar’s “Moving Finger” in Fig.1g. Is Omar, perhaps, contemplating his own end, much to the distress of his Beloved on the right, for we know by quatrains 74 & 75 that he will pre–decease her ? More amusingly, it has been suggested that, his Beloved having done something very naughty, Omar’s moving finger indicates that it is unforgivable, hence her great distress. Given the general literalness of the drawings, though, I am inclined to the former view, amusing though the latter might be! [The illustrations can be browsed here.]
Now, anybody who has ever tried to find out about Potter’s G.A. Sheehan knows that he (or she) is, like the invisible man, nowhere to be found in ancestry records or newspaper archives. Given that this edition of The Rubaiyat appeared in London in 1912, we ought surely to find our artist in the UK census of 1911, and yet he is not there, nor anywhere else for that matter. But a C.A. Sheehan, a London Art Teacher, is, and to cut a long story short, he turns out to be our man: Charles Andrews Sheehan. A watercolour by him of New College Oxford, done in 1902, is shown in Fig.2, his signature being clearly visible in the bottom left–hand corner. Again, a religious oil painting by him, “Hereditas Hominis Coelum Est” (The Inheritance of Man is Heaven) is shown in Fig.3a. His signature and its date are again to be found in the bottom left–hand corner, though difficult to make out in this case. With a bit of tinkering, though, the details can be made clearer, as shown in Fig.3b. Finally, and much more imaginative, another of his religious oil paintings, “Jesus Salvator” (Jesus the Saviour [of the World]) is shown in Fig.4a, with a clarified look at the signature in Fig.4b.The signatures in Figs.2, 3b & 4b clearly match that in Fig.1c. [Browse here.]
Are the black & white drawings also by Sheehan ? His signature does not appear on them, and, as a cautionary note, Sheehan also did the cover–plate and frontispiece for the Gravure Series (no.4) edition of The Book of Romantic Ballads. The cover is shown in Fig.5a and the frontispiece with the title page in Fig.5b (his barely readable signature is to the bottom left – Fig.5c.) But he did not do the 6 black & white drawings inside the book, which are all signed R.Savage – see Fig.5d, for example. Sheehan also did the cover–plate and frontispiece for the Gravure Series (no.5) edition of Poems and Songs by Robert Herrick. The cover is shown in Fig.6a and the frontispiece with the title–page in Fig.6b (his signature is to the bottom right – Fig.6c.) But he did not do the 12 black & white drawings inside the book, which are (mostly – 8 out of 12) also signed R. Savage. In the Gravure Series, then, one cannot assume that the same artist did both the colour plate and the black & white drawings (3), but one of the exceptions is of particular interest here: the Gravure Series (no.7) edition of Cardinal Newman’s The Dream of Gerontius. The cover is shown in Fig.7a and the frontispiece with the title–page in Fig.7b. Four of the eight black & white illustrations are shown in Figs.7c, 7d, 7e & 7f. As can be seen, the colour plate is clearly signed C.A. Sheehan at the bottom right, as is Fig.7e, also at the bottom right, with Fig.7f signed CAS at the bottom left. Given all this, and the similarity of the design of the unsigned Fig.7d to the colour plate, it seems safe to say that Sheehan did all the black & white illustrations, signed or not. [Browse here.]
Looking back at the black & white Rubaiyat drawings, though the Oriental dress is similarly depicted in both the colour plate and the black & white illustrations, the turban in the former is in a different style to those in the latter; the sash in the former is outside the outer garment, but inside it in the latter; and the beard in the former is less pointed than those in the latter. Suggestive, but hardly enough to prove that Sheehan didn’t do them, and given that he did do the unsigned black & white drawings in The Dream of Gerontius, I am inclined to the view that Sheehan probably did those for The Rubaiyat, but not certainly. I leave readers to decide for themselves whether he did or he didn’t.
Incidentally, Sheehan probably also did the colour plate for the cover & frontispiece of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence (Gravure Series no.2), though his signature in the bottom right hand corner is far from clear. The cover is shown in Fig.8a, the frontispiece with title–page in Fig.8b, and the clearest available shot of his signature, after a bit of tinkering, in Fig.8c. He certainly did do the colour plate for The Changed Cross & Other Religious Poems (Gravure Series no.9). The cover is shown in Fig.9a and the frontispiece with title–page in Fig.9b, his signature being again in the bottom right hand corner (Fig.9c). Both of these books contained no black & white illustrations. [Browse here.]
Curiously, I am not aware of Sheehan illustrating any books other than those for Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton & Kent. One might have expected him to have done illustrations for some of the Catholic works published by Burns and Oates, for example, or for children’s stories with a religious theme published by the likes of the Religious Education Press, but if he did. I am not aware of them.
Finally, as many readers will have noticed, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd certainly got considerable mileage out of Garth Jones’s decorative surround of the frontispiece in Fig.1b, for his design was used with the frontispieces of all twelve titles of the Gravure Series. One hopes that he was suitably remunerated.
Charles Andrews Sheehan is not a well–documented artist and very little information about him is available in print or online. But it is possible to construct a skeletal outline of his life and career from online ancestry records and newspaper archives. He was born in Bedminster, Bristol, on 10 January 1876, the youngest of the seven children of William Sheehan, a labourer, and his wife Selina Teresa Sheehan (née Andrews.) He was baptised at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary–on–the–Quay, Bristol, which explains the above–mentioned religious paintings, of which more presently. In the 1891 census, aged 15 and still living with his parents in Bedminster, he is recorded as being an Art Student. Newspaper articles in the local press reveal that between 1893 and 1897 he studied at the Kensington Government School of Science and Art in Berkeley Square, Bristol, where he was awarded several prizes and medals for his work (see below.) In 1897 he married Susan Catherine Densley, herself a former art student who had studied at the Bath College of Art. They were married at the Catholic Pro–Cathedral of the Holy Apostles, Clifton, Bristol (4a). By the time of the 1901 census they were living at 12 Redburn Street, Chelsea, London. Now 25, he is listed as “Artist, Painter, Sculptor”, self–employed and working from home. Ten years later they had moved to 89 Leander Road, Brixton, and, as we saw above, he was working as an Art Teacher for the London County Council. By 1912 his work was being used in the Gravure Series. By the time of the 1921 census they had moved again, to 431 Fulham Road. He is still listed as an Art Master for the London County Council, specifically at the Myrdle Street Central School, Stepney. Curiously, living with them is Margaret Esther Sheehan, aged 13, born in Ireland, and listed as his daughter. But the 1911 census records information about the number of children, the answer to which is given as “none”, so who was she ? Was she, perhaps, not actually his daughter, but the daughter of an Irish relative, living with them in England for the purposes of study ? Certainly she is listed as in full time education, but beyond that nothing about her is known. Thee is then something of a gap in the online records until the death of his wife, Susan, in 1935. A Requiem Mass was held for her at the Servite Church on Fulham Road (4b). The following year he married Katherina Hildegard Gertrude Gorges (whose Dutch (?) name is variously rendered in the records.) In the 1939 register he and his wife, her name simplified to Kate. G. Sheehan, are recorded as living at 60 Warwick Road, Banbury, though he is still listed as “Art Master (London County Council)” – they had actually been evacuated from London to Banbury, where they continued to live after the war was over. In Banbury he became very much involved in local affairs, writing articles for the local press on current events, including commenting on exhibitions of art and craft work by local artists. One rather curious one, actually an interview with Sheehan, titled “The Fuel and the Fire”, appeared in The Banbury Guardian on 24 July 1947. There was a fuel shortage at the time, but Sheehan advised people to gather up handfuls of long grass, twist the grass so as to form a sort of ‘rope,’ tie up the ends to form a ‘ring,’ then allow to dry out thoroughly. These can then be used to fuel a fire, thus cutting out the need for electricity or gas. Sheehan said that by using these he hadn’t needed to order any coal for four years and that he had used so little gas that the Gas Company thought his meter was faulty, and had replaced it with a new one! Finally, backtracking a little, towards the end of 1945 Sheehan had produced a number of pencil sketches of Banbury scenes which were reproduced on postcards for sale through local booksellers, though, unfortunately, none seem to have survived (4c). Sheehan died in Banbury on 11 November 1956, his funeral taking place at the Catholic Church of St. John the Evangelist on 15 November (4d). In 1960, on 10 November, his wife inserted her regular In Memoriam notice in The Banbury Guardian, this one reading: “In tender memory of a gallant husband CHARLES ANDREWS SHEEHAN, F.R.S.A ... . W.A.E. (sic), November 11th 1956. Devout to his faith. From his wife Catherina.” (F.R.S.A. = Fellow of the Royal Society of Artists; W.A.E. should probably be F.R.W.A. = Fellow of the Royal West of England Academy.) His wife, who was some 20 years younger than him, lived on, dying in Wales on 12 October 1978.
As we have already seen, Sheehan was a devout Catholic, which seems slightly at odds with him associating himself with the agnostic Omar, though the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive – one can appreciate poetry of FitzGerald without accepting the carpe diem agnosticism of Omar (5) – and quatrain 11 (Fig.1b) is certainly innocuous enough, being a sort of romantic ‘cousin’ to Herrick’s opening verse of “To the Virgins, to make much of Time” (Fig.6b), the sense of the title being clarified by its closing verse: “Then be not coy, but use your time, / And while ye may go marry: / For having lost but once your prime / You may for ever tarry.” (Modern eyes can see a much more risqué meaning in Herrick’s title which has nothing to do with Holy Matrimony!) The other Rubaiyat illustrations, too, are innocuous enough for even a devout Catholic, and in any case, an artist has to make a living, and sometimes needs must.
In 1897, whilst still at the Kensington Government School of Science and Art in Bristol, he was awarded a silver medal for his modelled design of a pulpit (4e), though his work at the School was by no means dominated by religious themes. In 1894, for example, he was awarded a prize for a design for some iron gates (4f) and later that same year was commended for his studies in Anatomy and Still Life (4g). Also, as we have seen, his watercolour “New College with Bell Tower”, shown in Fig.2, was done in 1902.
In 1905 it would appear that Sheehan exhibited his painting “The Holy Innocents” at the Spring Exhibition of the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol, and the following year it was donated to that Academy (4h). However, inquiries at the RWA revealed no trace of it, nor any record of its donation (though many records were destroyed in the Second World War.) Consequently, its present whereabouts are unknown, and no image of the painting is available. However, in 1906 his painting “The Vocation of St. Frideswide” was donated to the RWA, where it still resides today. It is shown in Fig.10. In fact, between 1903 and 1933, available RWA exhibition catalogues reveal that he exhibited some 24 paintings, including 4 portraits, 4 landscapes, 1 indeterminate title – “The Safeguard”, in 1908 – and finally, both in 1910, a painting “Lamia” (the child–eating monster of Greek mythology; possibly an illustration of Keats’ poem about her) and “The Slave Market.” The remaining 13 works were all of a religious nature (6). Unfortunately no images of any of the 24 are available, and their whereabouts, if indeed they still exist, remain unknown.
Sheehan exhibited three times at The New English Art Club. The Winter 1909 exhibition featured his “Portrait of my Father”; the Summer 1910 exhibition featured “Love, the Consoler”; and the Winter 1910 exhibition featured “A Pleasant Occupation.” No images of these are available, unfortunately. (The exhibition catalogues reveal that throughout this period his address was 1 Cambridge Road, Battersea Park.)
Between 1912 and 1914, of course, he provided illustrations for five and probably six of the twelve titles in the Gravure Series
He exhibited at least four oil paintings at the Royal Academy: “St. Joan of Arc and the Inspiring Voices” and a decorative panel for an altar in 1916; “The Annunciation” in 1922; and “Te Deum Laudamus” in 1926. No images of these are available, unfortunately. (The exhibition catalogues reveal that throughout this period his address was 431 Fulham Road, London SW, as noted in the 1921 census above.)
As we have already seen, his “Hereditas Hominis Coelum Est” (Fig.3a) was done in 1929 (Fig.3b) and his “Jesus Salvator” (Fig.4a) in 1931 (Fig.4b).
Finally, in 1943, after he had been in Banbury for some years, he painted the portrait of Owen Reid, the town clerk of Banbury (Fig.11).
I have made no attempt to focus on religious themes here, I have merely mentioned works of art as I have found them, and the prominence of religious themes emerged naturally. But I have to say that I think that, religious or otherwise, it is a tragedy that so few of Sheehan’s paintings have survived, or at least, are in unknown locations if they have survived. As Thomas Gray said, and as Omar would no doubt have agreed, “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
In contrast to Charles A. Sheehan, Garth Jones is well known as a book illustrator and decorator – he features in Brigid Peppin and Lucy Micklethwait’s Book Illustrators of the Twentieth Century (1984), for example, and now has a very good Wikipedia Page devoted to him and his work. Accordingly we need do little more than sketch his life and career here, citing references only where they expand on Wikipedia.
Born Alfred Jones in Manchester on 10 August 1872, early in his career he seems to have adopted Garth as a middle name to make his birth name a bit less ‘ordinary.’ He began his studies of Art in Manchester, but soon moved to London where he attended the Westminster School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. After a spell studying in Paris, he returned to the South Kensington Schools in London (7a). Though he was doing a fair amount of book illustration by the late 1890s, like Sheehan he had to supplement his income by teaching – in his case at the Lambeth School of Art. He also seems to have done some work for advertising agencies (7b), notably the Carlton Studio. In 1898 he married Harriet Napier Osborne by whom he had a daughter, Barbara Garth Jones, and a son, Brian Garth Jones – sadly, the latter died, aged only four, as a result of his night–shirt catching fire (7c). Harriet Napier Jones died on 9 May 1946, after which the artist went to live with his daughter in Sidcup, Kent. He died in Sidcup on 6 July 1955.
Two of the earliest books he illustrated, apparently at the invitation of their author, were Jérome Doucet’s Contes de Haute–Lisse (Tales of High–Warp, hence, roughly, “Tales from the Tapestry”), published by Bernoux & Cumin, Paris, in 1899, for which he did 61 illustrations plus borders and vignettes, and Contes de la Fileuse (Tales of the Spinner), published by Charles Tallandier, Paris, in 1900, for which he did no less than 115 illustrations, again with borders and vignettes. The two were later published in one volume by Joanin & Cie., Paris, in 1903. Some of the illustrations were left out (it contained 100 all told), and the decorative borders were removed. I give four examples from this last edition here, all title–page illustrations to particular tales, as Fig.12a (The Scar) & Fig.12b (Sleep), both from Haute–Lisse, and Fig.12c (The Water–Clock) & Fig.12d (The Cherry Tree), both from Fileuse. The illustrations are mostly signed AGJ for Alfred Garth Jones, written in a difficult to decipher cursive script, but clearly visible to the lower right of Fig.12d. [Browse here.]
Doucet’s books were hugely popular in France, which prompted a reviewer in The Studio (November 1901, p.131–4) to observe that, “It has fallen to the lot of Mr Garth Jones to be more widely known in France than he is in his own country.” The review reproduces a drawing titled “The Note”, specially drawn for The Studio (Fig.13a), and refers to another, titled “Love, Youth and Death” (Fig.13b), recently published in the Studio's special number, Modern Pen Drawings: European and American (1901), edited by Charles Holme. Both are fine examples of Jones’s work, the former in a rather Pre–Raphaelite style, the latter having distinct echoes of Dürer.
As regards book illustration, the most relevant to the present essay, though, is the Gravure Series (no.3) edition of Tennyson’s In Memoriam. Its front cover is shown in Fig.14a and its frontispiece & title–page in Fig.14b – the colour plate being by D.S. Hallett, whose signature can be seen in the bottom right hand corner. It contained nine full–page illustrations, and 5 smaller in–text illustrations, all in black & white. All were signed AGJ, for Alfred Garth Jones, in a more readable form. I show three of the full–page illustrations here as Fig.14c, Fig.14d, and Fig.14e. As the title–page indicates, this book is “a Selection” from Tennyson’s long poem, and in fact its illustrations are also a selection – from an edition of In Memoriam published by George Newnes Ltd., of London in 1901. This probably explains why the illustrations are signed AGJ whilst the decorative frame of the frontispiece is signed Garth Jones. [Browse here.]
In 1901 George Newnes also published the English edition of A Real Queen’s Fairy Tales by Carmen Sylva, illustrated by Garth Jones and Harold Nelson. This book is of interest not only as another example of Jones’s work, but also for its interesting background, for Carmen Sylva was the pen–name of Elizabeth, Queen of Roumania (1843–1916), one of those monarchs with keen literary and artistic interests, as well as concern for charitable organisations and the higher education of women. As she tells us in the last chapter of her book, her pen–name derives from her love of the forests of Roumania, it being (almost) the Latin for “Song of the Forest” (It should be Carmen Sylvae, but she didn’t like the sound of that!) I show two examples of Jones’s illustrations here, as Fig.15a & Fig.15b. Both are signed A. Garth Jones.
Also for George Newnes, in 1904 Jones did the frontispiece and decorative surround of the title–page (Fig.16a), as well as the end–papers (Fig.16b), of The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by Thomas Roscoe – all fine examples of Jones’s work, all signed Garth Jones. I particularly like the image of Father Time in Fig.16b, with his traditional symbols of the scythe and hour–glass, but with the added touch of a smiling putto grasping the Forelock of Time! (Compare Fig,12b.) (8)
Backtracking slightly, Jones also illustrated an edition of Charles Lamb’s Essays of Elia published by Methuen & Co., London, in 1902. For this, Jones designed the cover (Fig.17a – his initials AGJ are in the bottom right hand corner), did a frontispiece portrait of Lamb, and 73 other illustrations, of which I reproduce three here for their quirkiness: Fig.17b (“The Borrower and the Lender”); Fig.17c (“The Modern Schoolmaster”) and Fig.17d (“Distant Correspondents”). All three are signed with his cursive AGJ signature. [Browse here.]
Jones illustrated many other books besides the foregoing, as well as doing more book covers, title–page designs and end–papers. One of his cover designs which particularly intrigues me is the one he did for the 1925 edition of The Green Book of Prophecies, published by the Zam–Buk Company of Leeds. The company placed an ad in numerous English newspapers in the run–up to Christmas 1924 offering a free copy to anyone who applied for one. It was, the ad claimed, “Equal for its predictions and weather forecasts to any almanac sold for a shilling.” The Green Book of Prophecies had been going since at least 1905, and seems to have been a gimmick to promote the sales of Zam–Buk herbal ointment, said to cure all manner of skin ailments, from an itchy scalp with hair loss, via eczema, ulcers and chilblains, to piles. Quite how Garth Jones came to be involved in boosting the 1925 edition – the 1924 edition was promoted by the astrologer Zodiacus, incidentally – remains unknown at present, and unfortunately no image of his cover design has come to light.
Some of Jones’s most intriguing drawings were “one offs” done as presentation pieces for family and friends. One whose purpose is known is shown in Fig.18a, which from the names and date, clearly relates to the marriage, in Manchester, of Jones’s nephew Alan to Peggy H. Holt on 21 November 1939. Not so easy to track down, though, are Fig.18b (“The Dreamer” – To Olga June 23rd 1935) and Fig,18c (“The Tryst” – To Kathleen September 19th 1936), which feature on the Wikipedia page and are apparently unpublished originals in family ownership. Hopefully in due course the stories behind them will emerge.
Note 1: The book itself is undated, but its initial publication was announced in The Bookseller on 6 September 1912. There were almost certainly later, also undated, re–issues but I make no attempt to cover those here – see note 2a below.
Note 2a: Potter failed to notice a number of variant editions in different covers, for which see Paas ##4160–4166. Paas makes no attempt to date these undated variants, being content to place all in the date–range 1912–ca.1918.
Note 2b: The cover shown in Fig.1a is Paas #4161, and my own copy of this actually has an inscription dated 1912. Another copy has a gift inscription dated July 1916. Paas #4160 is a copy with a virtually identical cover to Fig.1a, differing only in the decorative surround. This appears to be a less common issue and the only copy of it I have seen is Paas #4160, which has a gift inscription dated Christmas 1921. [I make no attempt in this essay to cover American reprints of the Gravure Series Rubaiyat, for which see Paas ##1627–9 (Dodge Publishing Co.) and Paas #2724 (Hubbell Publishing Co.), both of New York.]
Note 2c: This colour plate by Sheehan was also used as the tipped–in frontispiece to some copies of The Rubaiyat “written and embellished by Bernard Way”, published by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd. in 1914. (It was undated, but its publication was announced in The Bookseller on 9 October 1914.) This is Paas ##4171–2.The more usual coloured frontispiece was signed F. Anderson (Potter #107; Paas ##4167–4170). This edition being later than the Sheehan Gravure Series edition, one can only presume that the publishers ran out of Anderson plates, and plugged the gap with left–over Sheehan plates! Incidentally, F. Anderson was one of the signatures used by Florence Mary Anderson (1893–1972), & it can be seen in many of the coloured illustrations she did for Lady Margaret Sackville’s book The Dream–Pedlar, first published by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. in 1914 – same publisher & year as the Bernard Way Rubaiyat.
Note 3: The Gravure Series ran to twelve titles in all, first published between 1912 and 1914. All were undated, but their publication dates can be established via The Bookseller. The first six titles featured in the issue of 6 September 1912; nos.7, 8 & 9 in the issue of 1 August 1913; and nos.10, 11 & 12 in the issue of 9 October 1914. Details of the twelve titles, the artists involved, and the number of illustrations can be found in Fig.19.
Note 4: a) Western Daily Press, 5 June 1897, p.8; b) Chelsea News and General Advertiser, 15 March 1935, p.8, a useful obituary of her; c) Banbury Advertiser, 2 January 1946, p.8; d) Banbury Guardian, 29 November 1956, p.4; e) Clifton Society, 16 September 1897, p.13. f) Western Daily Press, 5 July 1894, p.6; g) Western Daily Press, 22 August 1894, p.7; h) Western Daily Press, 16 February 1906, p.5;
Note 5: John Kelman D.D, in Lecture IV of his Among Famous Books (1912) admitted that The Rubaiyat was a poetical treasure, but warned that to take it more seriously than that was to invite a sort of Eastern spiritual plague. Likewise, G.K. Chesterton, in his book The Victorian Age in Literature (1913), chapter 3, expressed great admiration for FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat calling it “as poetical as Swinburne and far more perfect.” But for all that, he went on, it was still “a sort of bible of unbelief”, a moral danger. Thus, Richard le Gallienne, writing in The Book of Omar and Rubaiyat (p.16), published in 1900, thought it “a disintegrating spiritual force in England and America” and a Jesuit priest called James J. Daly, writing in his article “The Failure of Omar Khayyam,” published in The New York Times on 9 June 1912, doubted “whether any poem of our times has wrought greater spiritual havoc.” For such reasons, Edward Byles Cowell feared that he had “incurred a grave responsibility” when he introduced FitzGerald to the poetry of Omar in 1856, and thus unwittingly set the Omar Cult in motion. “I yield to no one in my admiration of Omar’s poetry as literature,” he wrote, “but I cannot join in the ‘Omar Cult’ ... I admire Omar ... but I cannot take him take him as a guide. In these grave matters I prefer to go to Nazareth, not to Naishapur.” (Letter to Edward Heron–Allen dated 3 April 1898.)
Note 6: I give a list of the titles and dates of exhibition here: My Child, give me thy heart (1903); Oh Godlike isolation which art mine (a quote from Tennyson’s Palace of Art) (1907); For the end of that man is peace (1907); The Vision of St. Joan of Arc (1908); The Immortal Voyage (1908); The Prodigal Son (1910); Temporal and Spiritual Gifts (1913); Flight into Egypt (1919); Remember not our offences, O Lord (1924); Tu Patris Sempiternus es Filis (You are always the Son of the Father) (1926); Jesus, Son of the Living God (1928); The Rest after the Flight into Egypt (1933); Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis (Turn away your face from my sins) (1933). There may have been others, but the RWA does not have a complete set of its exhibition catalogues, lacking those for 1905, 1906, 1909, 1911, 1912 & 1934, plus Sheehan did not exhibit every year.
Note 7: a) Peppin & Micklethwaite give a little more detail than Wikipedia. b) He did a large advert for Sunlight Soap, published on the front page of The Daily Chronicle on 30 May 1924, for example, and another for Drage’s furniture store appeared in The Daily Express on 13 October 1925 (p.6). Two of his original adverts for Selfridge’s can be seen on the website of the V&A in London. c) Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle 21 December 1906, p.7, under the heading, “Child’s Shocking Death at Bishop’s Mansions.”
Note 8: The Scythe and Hourglass of Time are well–known symbols, but the Forelock of Time is less well–known. It has a long and complex history, but at the risk of over–simplifying things, to seize Time by the Forelock is to seize an opportune moment: you can seize the Forelock whilst Time is ahead of you, but after Time has passed you by, so has the Forelock, and the opportune moment is gone.
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I must thank Sandra Mason for pointing out use of the C.A. Sheehan plate in the Bernard Way edition, and for supplying images of it in situ; also to Fred Diba, likewise. Getting a decent shot of Sheehan’s signature for Fig.1c involved looking at a number of copies in addition to my own and those pictured on the likes of ebay, other images being supplied by Sandra Mason and Danton O’Day. Getting a decent shot of the signature in Fig.8c proved even more difficult, and for their help with this I must thank Aimee Burnett & Nicholas Alen at the British Library and Thomas Chisholm of Liverpool University Library. I must also thank Martha Clewlow of the Tate Library & Archive for supplying details of the NEAC exhibition catalogues and Tristan Pollard of the Royal West of England Academy for detailed information regarding Sheehan’s exhibits at the RWA. Finally, I must thank Roger Paas, Joe Howard and (again) Sandra Mason for proof–reading this article and making some useful suggestions and observations.
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