3-017-029 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Beacon", by J. Absolon, in the Exhibition of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, 1864. Engraving of a painting. 'For what, or for whom, has this buxom, comely lass brought her torch, all alone, to this desolate spot; for whom, or for what, with dilated eyes that bicker so brightly in the torch flare, is she...gazing so vehemently into the gathering shades of a...storm-portending night?...this is evidently a humble domestic beacon-light, not a fire to alarm and rouse a nation. Moreover, the venue is plainly...eagerly longed for, not dreaded; and it is fixed on the French...shore, as we infer from the costume - the jacket, the short, striped petticoat, and blue though not literary stockings worn by our heroine. Is this Normandy matelotte, then, looking out for and trying to guide safely to the haven of home a fisherman father, husband, brother, or lover, who has been...overtaken by bad weather?...it is much more probable that the painter intended to represent the wife, sweetheart, or relative of a French smuggler, who, thus fearful and anxious, has come at night to some harbourless part of the coast with her torch, the lighting of which is the preconcerted signal for running on shore with a cargo of English cotton or calico prints'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.