Footnotes

No longer, Michal, then attempt to hide
The secret of thy soul.
Handel's Oratorio of 'Saul'

And Michal Saul's daughter loved David
1 Samuel xviii.20.

Provenance
Fairless & Beeforth.
Sir John Holder, Bart. by 1906.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 21 March 1990, lot 220.
With Zangrilli & Co., London.
Private collection, UK (acquired from the above).

Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1883, no. 97.
Messrs Fairless and Beeforth, 168 Bond Street, 1884-5.
Merab, and Michal toured with Anno Domini, 1889:
T. Cranfield Galleries, Dublin, April-May;
Rodman's Gallery, Belfast, June 1889;
Frost and Reed, Bristol, September-October 1889.
Birmingham Art Gallery, Royal Society of Artists, 1906.

Literature
The Echo, 11 April 1883, p. 2.
The Times, 5 May 1883, p. 12.
The Globe, 5 May 1883, p. 6.
Saturday Review, 5 May 1883, p. 566; 26 May 1883, p. 665; 16 February 1884, p. 216.
Evening Irish Times, 7 May 1883, p. 6.
Punch, 12 May 1883, p.220.
Athenaeum, 12 May 1883, p. 607.
Building News, 18 May 1883, p. 656.
Lady's Pictorial, 26 May 1883, p. 359; 5 September 1885, p. 210.
Art Journal, 1883, p. 202.
Academy Notes, 1883, p. 13.
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 29 March 1906, p. 6.
Austin Chester, 'The Art of Edwin Long RA', Windsor Magazine, February 1908, p. 548.
Richard Quick, The life and works of Edwin Long, R.A., Bournemouth, 1931, p. 44.
Mark Bills, Edwin Longsden Long RA, London 1998, no. 195, pp. 138-139, illustrated.

Edwin Long's companion paintings of Merab and Michal, were considered among the artist's greatest achievements, contrasting arrogant and humble beauty, or as the Echo reported in 1883 'one of pride, the other of tenderness.' The subjects of the paintings are Biblical, portraying the daughters of King Saul, Merab, the elder and Michal the younger. Long chose not to use the Bible as his main source however, drawing instead from the oratorio Saul, by G. F. Handel, which elaborates on the characters of the two young women. 'The painter,' the Times wrote, 'in default of much scriptural authority has sought his inspiration rather in Handel's oratorio, where the elder daughter is represented as highly indignant at David's presumption.' The lines from the oratorio accompanied the title of the paintings in the Royal Academy catalogue, giving the background to Long's characterization. The text for Merab by Handel's librettist portrays the daughter as scorning David for his humble roots:

'My soul rejects the thought with scorn
That such a boy till now unknown
Of poor plebeian parents born
Should mix with royal blood his own.'

Her posture and expression mirrors the text with her hands clasped as a barrier and the background populated with ancient royal arms and armour.

In contrast, Michal's lines are taken both from Handel's oratorio alongside the Biblical account:

'No longer, Michal, then attempt to hide
The secret of thy soul.' - Handel's Oratorio of 'Saul'
'And Michal Saul's daughter loved David' 1 Samuel xviii.20.

Her posture makes evident her love of David, with her hands clasped in adoration and the background soft with fabric and leopard skins.

These works were first shown to the public in April 1883 on 'Show Sunday', when artists opened up their studios to preview the pictures destined for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The Echo reported that 'Lines of carriages on Sunday afternoon were drawn up in front of those various shrines of Art... Mr Long exhibits... two young ladies of very different temperament...'. A few weeks later, the pair appeared in Gallery I at the Royal Academy exhibition, flanking a painting by Thomas Faed, The Waefu' Heart (no.92). 'Their heads, which are distinguished by great beauty of an Oriental type, and their shapely limbs are finely designed and carefully modelled,' the Globe wrote, 'whilst Faed's work could 'be passed without much notice...'. The paintings were well reviewed with the Lady's Pictorial declaring that 'the daughters of Saul, are perhaps the finest single figures Mr Long has painted... The lines from the oratorio of Saul are too poor for their subject.'

Following the exhibition the pair were exhibited at Lawrence and Beeforth's gallery at 168 Bond Street where they were displayed side by side. In 1889, alongside Long's great painting Anno Domini (1883, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery), they toured to Dublin and Belfast before moving to Bristol before being sold to Sir John Charles Holder (1838-1923).

We are grateful to Mark Bills for compiling this catalogue entry.