John Dickson Batten

Sale: Christie's, London, 30 July 1959, lot 125 (as Sympathy: Naomi and Ruth and dated 1891)
Sale: Ansorena, Madrid, 8 April 2015, lot 83
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Demeter, clad in blue drapery, holds the hand of her daughter, who sits by her dressed in green and russet garments. At their feet wild hyacinths and anemones are springing upwards from among the dead leaves with which the ground is strewn.

When the present picture was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1891 it was accompanied by the following poem written by Batten himself;

The sorrows of thine heart are comforted;
For once again the king yealds up his prize,
The Blossom maiden of thine memories,
Crown'd bride of death, and queen among the dead.
For whose returning feet the world is spread
So thick with flowers, a welcome dear to eyes
That long have looked upon the land that lies,
Beyond the gate whose threshold all must tread.

"Oh mother, mother, in whose wistful ear
The secret things of that dark realm are told,
Gulf of man's life, and garner of thy gold;
What tiding of the hope and of the fear,
What dream of bliss had made the dawning year
Ring with such mirth of voices manifold!"