Christ in the everyday nineteenth-century experience: examining a collection of daily prayers and a painting of Jesus

CELIA JARVIS John Keble and produced at the bookends of a century renowned for its scientific and industrial progress. Both men, professing a personal faith, sought to make sense of the presence of Christ and the significance of His death and resurrection in an era of fast spreading doubt. In this article, I shall discuss John Keble’s poem ‘Easter Eve’ from The Christian Year, Thoughts in Verse (1825) and William Holman Hunt’s painting The Shadow Of Death (1873). I argue that Hunt’s desire for visual precision and Keble’s ritualistic approach to prayer propel their shared belief that Christ was still relevant in the 19th century and could be encountered even within the monotony of daily living.

Figure 1. The Shadow of Death (1870-1873) William Holman Hunt, Oil on Canvas, “Image courtesy of ” John Keble, a member of the clergy, funeral fetters wound.’4 Both creators In Hunt’s painting The Shadow of therefore have an experience of Christ. a Fellow of Balliol College and an depict Christ differently, yet I argue that Death, Christ, in his workshop, ends Christ is part of the quotidian of all associate of the Oxford Movement they are both attempting to achieve the his working day. Hunt writes that nineteenth century devotees. began writing The Christian Year: same message. Both creators wanted Christ has: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and to uphold that Christ was still relevant In the same way, Hunt paints Christ in Holydays Throughout the Year [hence to everyday nineteenth century ‘Just risen from the plank on which His everyday surroundings having just He has been working, and is portrayed

referred to as Thoughts in Verse] to people. I will begin the argument by finished His daily manual labour. With CHRIST IN THE EVERYDAY inspire the nation’s worship. The aim examining how both creators portray as throwing up His arms to realise the saw in the vice and the tools in their of his poetry was to bring together the divine encounters that spring from the that pleasant sensation of repose and store, a nineteenth century carpenter relaxation.’5 sensibility of a time of ‘leisure and rhythms of daily life. Next, how Keble would easily recognise this scene, and unbounded curiosity’1 with the mystic and Hunt redefine the domestic space yet within the scene a miracle is taking The saw resting on its bench and the ritual of the liturgical year. What Keble for worship. And finally, examining place. The tools affixed to the wall day’s wood shavings scattering the didn’t realise was the impact this poetry how doubt and anxieties surrounding were modelled on what Hunt believed floor, we are to imagine that this is the

CELIA JARVIS / VIDES book would have on the wider church the validity of the resurrection are dealt to be the authentic tools that Jesus end to a working day like any other. for generations to come. Anonymous with in The Shadow of Death and Easter would have used.7 The ‘authentic’ editor H.M pinpoints Thoughts in Verse Eve. tools become transfigured by the In Keble’s Morning poem, the act of as the very conception of the Tractarian shadow of Jesus’ body stretching in bringing the same ‘familiar strain’ movement.2 Keble’s Thoughts in Verse begins the evening sun. In this phenomenon, of prayer before God each morning, with ‘Morning and Evening’ prayers the shadow-cross draws together the ‘ask[ing] and ask[ing] again,’ opens Fifty-two years after Keble’s first intended for daily reading. Morning human aspect of Christ in his human up the way to ‘finding a spell unheard anonymous edition,3 William Holman and Evening account for the first dwelling, with the Divinity of Christ. before.’6 In Evening poem, the habitual Hunt’s newly completed painting, The real personal devotion writing of its Therefore, Hunt’s message is that fading of the sun takes with it the Shadow of Death, was shipped from its kind. It uses the model of The Book within the daily reality of all Christian worries of the day. Moreover, the place of its creation in Israel to Hunt’s of Common Prayer as designed for labourers, Christ is present. allegory of the absent sun reminds studio in England. Hunt’s journey to corporate worship and repurposes it the reader of the presence of the Son: the Holy Lands represented a quest to for the individual devotee. With two As seen in this excerpt from Morning, ‘It is not night if Thou be near.’ In return to the birthplace of the Christian prayers repeated at the same time each part of Keble’s ritual is to tune the these two poems, Keble exploits the story. Equipped with Pre-Raphaelite day, Keble creates a daily rhythm. Every mind to look for new ‘treasures’ each cyclical, predictable nature of the day. realism, Hunt sought to capture in his morning the reader invites Christ to be day: He loads something as universal as painting the verbatim of a landscape present with them. Every evening, the waking up and going to bed with an that had once echoed Jesus’ voice. reader implores Christ to abide with If on our daily course our mind innate sacred potential. The key to them. Over time this routine becomes Be set to hallow all we find, unlocking this potential is through Hunt paints a strong and youthful ritual, and in repeating the ritual, the New treasures still, of countless price, ritually acknowledging these times of 8 Christ with no physical imperfections. reader experiences new revelations of God will provide for sacrifice. the day in prayer. Everyone and anyone Keble writes of the ‘silent corse, in Christ. who wakes up and goes to sleep can In Hunt’s painting, Mary is distracted

1 John, Keble, ‘The Christian Year : Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays Throughout the Year’ (Oxford, 5 Cited by Anon, Victorian web. [accessed 13.02.21]http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/whh/replete/shad- James Parker, 1866). p.A3. ow.html 2 John Keble, ‘The Christian Year with Introduction from H.M’, (Great Britain, A Mystical World Prints, Amazon, 6 Keble, p.6. 2015). p.2. 7 Natalie Davenport. 2012. ‘William Holman Hunt: Layered Belief in the Art of a Pre-Raphaelite Realist’, Reli- 3 According to Jr, Griffin. 1987. John Keble, Saint of Anglicanism (: Mercer University Press) p. 57. gion and the Arts, 16:( 29-77) p.33. 4 Keble, p.57. 8 Keble, p.5.

225 226 from looking at the treasures in the century evidence of that legacy. Indeed, very first draft of the Easter Eve poem Christ’s death and resurrection, Keble chest by the sight of the shadow-cross much of Hunt’s religious painting penned by Keble. Keble often drafted allows an allegorical representation of on the wall. With Mary’s hands resting traces the theme of Christ in domestic and sent fragments or entire poems by the theological premise that believers on the chest, but attention caught by life. In The Light of the World, Christ letter to his friends. This was, however, are buried with Christ in His death the shadow, Hunt captures a profound knocks on the door, in The Awakening one of Keble’s earliest versions. The before being raised to life with Him in yet quickly unfolding moment. It is as Conscience, the conscience is awakened use of the short hand ‘&’ suggests that His resurrection.10

if after years of Mary contemplating in the living room. Both Keble and Hunt this particular version was only for CHRIST IN THE EVERYDAY the gifts given by the Magi at the birth bring Christ into the recognisable, Keble’s drafting and reworking. In the years between Keble and of Jesus, their symbolic nature is fully everyday domestic space transforming Hunt’s respective works, the threat realised. The golden crown of royalty is how and where people worshipped. On the bottom right of the manuscript, of advancements in medicine and echoed in the red coronet of atonement an ink stain suggests Keble’s pen biological study fueled great anxieties at the foot of the work bench. The Beyond Morning and Evening poem, paused in a moment of reflection. The within the Christian community.11 The frankincense and myrrh foreshadow Thoughts in Verse follows the liturgical poem is after all meant to be reflective. publication of Essays and Reviews in 1860

CELIA JARVIS / VIDES Jesus’ soon to be embalmed body. year with a devotional poem for each In Easter Eve, Keble calls the reader questioned the scientific validity of the For both Keble and Hunt, a seemingly Sunday and for the days of Holy week. to journey with Christ through the resurrection.12 This scientific approach ordinary scene can spring forth an darkest hours of his death. to matters of faith was groundbreaking. encounter with the Divine. The key for “When tears are spent, & thou art left Suddenly, the tenet of faith with which both is habitual contemplation. alone The verse begins by focussing on the Keble’s readers accepted his work was With ghosts of blessings gone, lifeless corpse of Christ: ‘Around those now under scrutiny itself. This means The Shadow of Death depicts an imagined Think thou art taken from the cross, & lips where power and mercy hung, that religious artists like Hunt were laid scene. It is interesting, however, that / The dews of death have clung;’9 now fighting to defend the basis of In Jesus’ burial shade. Hunt imagined that this interaction Though the reader does have of their belief. Carol Jacobi traces Hunt’s Take Moses’ rod, the rod of prayer, & between Mary and the shadow-cross the resurrection to come, Easter Eve reaction to this debate in his letters. call should take place in the humble, Out of the rocky wall provides a sort of poetic pilgrimage Jacobi argues that in painting Christ, messy workshop and dwelling. Keble’s The fount of holy blood, & lift on high to Christ’s grave. Keble’s reader must Hunt was aiming to provide some Thoughts in Verse, being the new form Thy grovelling soul that feels so totally mourn the dead body of Christ sort of visual evidence for the case for of personal devotion, was by nature desolate and dry. laying in the grave before he can Christ’s historical reality. designed for the private domestic - experience the jubilation of Easter space of the literate nineteenth Prisoner of Hope thou art “look up & Sunday. Keble provides a cathartic In an age of religious questioning, the century population. Not only was Keble sing” space - Christ’s grave - in which the apparently precise visualization of highlighting the sacred potential of In thought of promised spring. reader can spend their tears, reflect an historical moment in Christ’s life As in the pit his father’s darling lay 13 times in the day and days of the year, upon the cross and be exhorted to validates faith. Beside the desert way, but also the sacred potential of new pick up the rod of prayer and carry And knew not how, but knew his God Moreover, William Holman Hunt also spaces to worship. Keble was therefore on. In these liminal moments between would save had a personal preoccupation with inviting the population to consider Even from that living grave, that the presence of Christ could now So, buried with our Lord, we’ll close 9 Keble, p. 57. be tangible in the home and not just our eyes 10 NIV Bible, Romans 6:4 . the Church building. To the decaying world, till angels bid 11 Bown, N., C. Burdett, and P. Thurschwell. 2004. The Victorian supernatural (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- us rise.” versity Press). p.173. 12Ibid. Perhaps, The Shadow of Death to some

extent provides the later nineteenth It is not certain whether this is the 13 Carol Jacobi, 2002. ‘Mimesis, materiality and The ‘Shadow of Death’ (William Holman Hunt)’, p. 607.

227 228 death and the frailty of the human body.14 Hunt wanted to depict a Christ Think thou art taken from the cross, who represented the picture of perfect and laid 16 health. In Hunt’s painting, Christ In Jesus’ burial shade; is very much the living saviour. The shadow of death therefore represents The shadow in Hunt’s painting is behind Jesus. In Keble’s writing, the

the death that Christ triumphantly CHRIST IN THE EVERYDAY vanquishes, not as it seems in Easter reader lies within that shadow. What Eve. This triumph is Hunt’s main Hunt achieves visually, Keble takes message. The saviour untouched by one step further in creating a four the lurking threat of death carries on dimensional experience. Keble’s reader his daily labour, satisfied in the work dies and lives with Christ. Keble’s done and the promise of eternity. reader sleeps and wakes with Christ. Therefore, Victorians are to live like Keble’s reader weeps, prays and sings Christ, that is, to rest at the end of the with Christ. For Keble, the rhythms working day in the knowledge that of life, and every emotion and doubt with Christ, death is just a shadow and it may contain are accepted as part of today is just another day in eternity. the journey to gaining new revelations of the spiritual realm on earth. Keble’s Whereas in Hunt’s painting, the supernatural is better defined as the Shadow of Death is just a shadow, extraordinary born from ordinary experience and routine. Figure 2. John Keble, stanzas 3 and 4 Manuscript of ‘Easter Eve’, Keble College, in Easter Eve, death has overcome Oxford, [AD 1/KM HYMNS AND POEMS 10/IV]by permission of Keble Archive. Christ. Keble asks Jesus, ‘Sleeps’t thou indeed? Or is thy spirit fled at The collection of Thoughts in Verse as large among the dead?’15 Keble openly a whole following the pattern of the confronts the theological doubts liturgical year also means that, by surrounding Christ’s whereabouts nature, Thoughts in Verse is designed in the period between death and to be read and reread over a lifetime of 17 resurrection. Unlike Hunt, Keble isn’t Sundays. Rodney Edgecombe argues attempting to convince an unbeliever that postmodern readings undermine of the validity of the Christian story. the authentic perspectives of those Keble holds in tow that doubt is part who experience Thoughts in Verse as of the journey that the believer must devotional literature. For these readers, take. This doubt is taken and buried the text becomes no longer a text, but with Jesus in the grave: a way of life as natural as breathing. Moreover, the rereading of Keble’s

14 After the death of his young wife and ill health according to Jacobi, C. 2002. ‘Mimesis, materiality and The ‘Shadow of Death’ (William Holman Hunt)’, Art History, 25: (605-621) p. 608. 15 Keble, p.58. 16 Keble, p.58. 17 R.S, Edgecombe, Two Poets of the Oxford Movement: John Keble and John Henry Newman (Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1996) p. 35.

229 230 work isn’t just aimed at finding new to the legacy of Keble himself. and sleeping to be transmuted into expressions of spirituality, but to ‘New thoughts of God, new hopes fundamentally change the believer’s In sum, Hunt’s work tries to proffer of Heaven.21’ Heaven itself can be way of seeing the world. Keble’s tangible, visible evidence for the case encountered within the daily rhythms mission is to attune the reader to find of Christ’s existence and resurrection. of living. Just like the material objects joy in the everyday experience: Keble’s work offers a poetic pilgrimage Mary contemplates in Hunt’s painting,

to Christ’s graveside. Both works Keble’s text, through contemplation, CHRIST IN THE EVERYDAY Old friends, old scenes will lovelier stand either side of a volatile and allows the supernatural to spring forth be, controversial series of mid-century from the everyday. As more of Heaven in each we see; debate that called to question the Some softening gleam of love and doubts that Keble so readily embraced prayer and that Hunt so fervently sought Shall dawn on every cross and care.18 to dispel. Both men however were

CELIA JARVIS / VIDES zealous in their commitment that the Keble also doesn’t shy away from person of Christ held relevance to the the hardships of everyday life. Keble daily lives of the people living in their simply redirects the reader to lay such age. Further, not just that Christ held burdens in the grave with Christ. relevance, but was accessible in new modes of worship and intercession No doubt, William Holman Hunt was within the domestic space. aware (and most likely owned a copy) of Keble’s Thoughts in Verse. Hunt’s Hunt paints Christ in his workshop, circle was involved in Oxford and his surrounded by the familiar symbols patron Thomas Combe was a long- of daily labour. The perfected body of standing supporter of the principles Christ in The Shadow of Death serves as of the Oxford Movement.’19 The a visual reminder of Jesus’ paradoxal movement that Keble would father total divinity and total humanity. In redefined the church. Hunt and his Hunt’s quest to somehow embody generation lived in the legacy of within one visual entity the two Keble’s new mode of intercession extreme and total realities, he takes that allowed for spiritual encounters. something as meagre and recognizable Hunt’s own spiritual encounter as a tool store and transforms it by happened in his vision at Ewell20 and casting the shadow of Christ over it, subsequently influenced all of Hunt’s forming the shadow-cross. biblical paintings. The first of such paintings and most famous, The Light In Thoughts in Verse, Keble takes of The World, now hangs in the chapel something as menial as waking at Keble College, Oxford, a monument

18 Keble, p.5. 19 Davenport, p.37. 20 Davenport, p.33. 21 Keble, p.5.

231 232