2-871-267 - Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

Home from Sea, 1856-1863. This work was originally exhibited as 'The Mother's Grave': a boy in sailor's uniform weeps over the grave of his mother who has died while he was at sea. Details such as spider's webs, dew drops, dog roses and dandelion seeds emphasise the theme of life's transience. The mother's death is also echoed in the lamb separated from its mother by the barrier of the tombstone. The artist's wife, Tryphena, sat for the figure of the boy's sister; the scene is the churchyard at Chingford in Essex. Painting in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. From "Pre-Raphaelite Painters" by Robin Ironside, with a descriptive catalogue by John Gere. [The Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 1948]