Mary Ethel Young Hunter

By descent through the artist's family

London, Royal Academy, 1906, no. 60;
London, Pyms Gallery, Edwardian Pre-Raphaelites, The Art of John and Mary Young Hunter, June 2000, no. 31

Royal Academy Pictures, 1906, p. 131;
Austin Chester, 'The Art of Mrs J Young Hunter', in The Windsor Magazine, Vol. 28, October 1908, illustrated p. 501

STRUCTURE This panel appears to be sound and there are no signs of warping. The colours are strong but the picture may benefit from a light clean. There are no signs of craquelure and the paint surface appears to be stable throughout. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are retouchings to the girl's hair and to a line at her neck, to her shawl and to the trees on the extreme left. There are also retouchings to the shadow in front of her knees and to the male figure's shirt and retouchings to the dark area behind the girl's bonnet. There are other smaller retouchings elsewhere. FRAME This picture is contained in a simple and attractive modern gilt frame in good condition.
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The Bow in the Cloud is one of Mary Young Hunter's most remarkable paintings, showing an interest in social drama that is rare in her oeuvre. A young family of agricultural workers, who have fallen upon hard times, are resting on a long journey seeking employment. The male figure, dressed in gaiters and a smock, slumps forward in a pose which expertly conveys disillusionment with the world and its tribulations. Conversely his wife, who clutches a babe on her lap, looks across the fields where a passing rainstorm has left a rainbow in its wake. The apparition in the sky symbolises a hope for the future as the clouds pass away and are replaced by sunshine. She has lowered her bonnet which shielded her from the rain and her face is bathed in sunlight. Perhaps the residents of the farm on the horizon will change the fortunes of these poor vagrants. Without turning her gaze away from the rainbow, she gently reaches for her husband's hand to urge him to take courage from the sight.

The composition of The Bow in the Cloud is based upon John Everett Millais' famous painting of 1856 The Blind Girl (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) and shows the enduring influence of Pre-Raphaelitism in the early twentieth century. It is likely that Young Hunter had seen the picture when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898. Young Hunter's biographer, Austin Chester, has explained the influence of Pre-Raphaelitism on her work thus; 'That we are wont too little to use our eye is true; true it is also that we are inclined too much to depend upon the memory of what others before us have seen, but when the art of these others belongs to the great grammar of instruction, it is the understanding of it which helps us bring out our own originality.' (Austin Chester, 'The Art of Mrs J Young Hunter', in The Windsor Magazine, vol. 28, October 1908, p. 505)

The overall composition in Young Hunter's painting is a reversal of that of Millais' painting and the subject of the painting is perhaps closer to that of Hubert von Herkomer's Hard Times of 1886 (Manchester City Art Gallery) also depicting a family of vagrant workers.

The painting can be interpreted as a modern retelling of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, with the Madonna and Joseph with the infant Christ. Thus the rainbow may be seen as a symbol of celestial intervention. Young Hunter's picture also has a nostalgic quality, depicting labourers from the early nineteenth century, before mass farming and mechanisation of agricultural practices threatened the traditional way of life in the countryside.