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Waterhouse’s lost ‘Miranda’ to be offered at auction
mailto:press@bonhams.com?subject=Waterhouse's%20Miranda
 30 June 2006
A stunning painting by one of the most acclaimed artists of the Victorian age has been discovered after 131 years and will sell at a Bonhams auction in November. An early version of ‘Miranda’ by John William Waterhouse (1849 – 1917), painted 41 years before his famous image of Shakespeare’s Tempest scene, is estimated to fetch between £100,000 – 150,000 at Bonhams’ sale of 19th Century Paintings at 101 New Bond Street, London on 14 November 2006. The painting had been in a private Scottish collection, and was discovered by Chris Brickley from Bonhams in Edinburgh during a valuation visit.
The re-appearance of this remarkable work is of exceptional significance not only because it has been lost for over a century, but also because it reveals that the artist was exploring highly personal themes and techniques far earlier in his career than previously thought. The picture had been cited as untraced in scholarly circles, and was known only through a black-and-white photograph, printed in reverse in Anthony Hobson’s book on the artist.
The subject of Miranda was immediately recognisable to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who saw it during its first and only public presentation – the 1875 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in Burlington House, Piccadilly. William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, first performed in 1611, was well known to every literate Victorian, and most viewers would have been able to associate this scene instantly with Miranda’s soliloquy in Act I, Scene ii:
If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them:
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O! I have suffer’d
With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel
Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her,
Dash’d all to pieces. O! the cry did knock
Against my very heart.
Unlike Waterhouse’s wildly dramatic and romanticised other view of this scene, which he painted in 1916 and which is so well-known today, this earlier painting exudes a tranquility and sees the Grecian-clad heroine draped on a rock in the soft evening light, looking out to sea with clasped hands – the calm before the storm perhaps, or a sense of still solemnity following the wretched event.
The picture’s compositional serenity fits neatly into the arc of Waterhouse’s development through the 1870s, and in treatment of the subject matter is also typical of his work at this time. This Miranda marks an early convergence of water, femininity, and magic, which – surprisingly – Waterhouse did not revisit until his renowned Lady of Shalott (Tate Britain) appeared thirteen years later in 1888.
The painting, which is oil on canvas, is signed ‘JW. Waterhouse,’ and measures 30 x 40 in (76 x 101.5 cm).
Further information and images: Frances Godden on 020 7468 8331 or press@bonhams.com
Notes for Editors
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today, Bonhams is the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world with a global network of offices and regional representatives providing sales advice and valuation services in 20 countries. It offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further 10 throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, Monaco, and Australia. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of more than 40 Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com For other press releases, go to www.bonhams.com/press
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