I recently chanced upon an interesting article, whilst I was undertaking some research for an unrelated enquiry to our archive.
The article in question was in The White Ribbon magazine of February 1939 and talked of a picture of the head Christ that was hanging in the Council Room at Rosalind Carlisle House, HQ of the British Women’s Temperance Association (BWTA). Although we have been based in Solihull from the early 2000’s, in 1939 the HQ of the association was in central London and had been since the 1890’s.
I recognised the picture described in the article as one that we have in storage. It is a picture that had been taken little notice of but one which appeared to have been of great personal importance to two of the most notable women in the history of the BWTA.
The NBWTA was founded in 1876 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, at the height of the Temperance Movement. It was the foremost women’s temperance society of the time, with members and branches across the country. One of its most notable Presidents was Lady Henry Somerset. She presided over the association from 1890 to 1903 and her great friend and American counterpart in the Temperance Movement was Frances Willard.
Frances Willard was a temperance reformer who became President of the World Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU) in 1891. The BWTA was affiliated to the WWCTU. In that same year Lady Henry Somerset went to America as President of the BWTA to attend the first convention of the WWCTU. It was during this trip that Lady Henry met her contemporary Frances Willard for the first time and they formed a lasting friendship, supporting one another and travelling between America and England.
Lady Henry’s friendship and working relationship with Frances Willard had a great influence on the running of the BWTA, as Lady Henry was keen to replicate some of the American ways of working, within the association in the UK. In particular, the ‘Do Everything’ policy which Lady Henry was keen to implement, ultimately caused a rift with some of the higher-ranking members leaving to form the Women’s Total Abstinence Union in 1893.
The 1939 article records that Lady Henry greatly admired the head of Christ taken from a picture by the German painter, Heinrich Hoffman (1824-1911). In fact, she admired it so much that she had it taken out of the larger picture and mounted separately. We are told that Lady Henry then sent the picture to Frances Willard as a Christmas present. The picture we have in storage which matches this description is not an original painting but appears to be a print, so this story is plausible.
Importantly, we are told that when Frances Willard was dying, this picture was on the wall of her room at the Empire Hotel in New York where she was staying. Frances had been increasingly suffering from ill-health and then contracted influenza. This was at a time when she had been preparing to set sail for England again and would have been re-united with her dear friend Lady Henry but her illness prevented her.
Frances and Lady Henry shared a deep faith in God and we can imagine that this picture would have brought great comfort to Frances. Not only would it have reminded Frances of her own faith in her hour of need but also of her friend who knew her so well. When Frances was dying, she is said to have pointed to the picture and asked for it to be returned to Lady Henry after her death, as her parting gift. It was returned perhaps to provide some onward comfort to Lady Henry in her grief at the loss of her friend and also as reminder of her faith during this difficult time. Frances Willard died on 17th February 1898 at the Empire Hotel in New York, aged 58 years.
Frances also requested that the following words appear on the top of the frame ‘Only the Golden Rule of Christ can bring the Golden Age of Man’ and underneath ‘Neither do I condemn thee – go and sin no more’. These are the words etched into the frame of the picture that we have in our collection and which was bestowed between these two women.
The article tells us that the motto at the top of the frame was one of Miss Willard’s favourite sayings and was the background of all her social and political philosophy. Lady Henry would have known this and perhaps drawn strength from this personal reminder.
When Lady Henry herself died in 1921, the picture was then given to Mrs Ward Poole, who had been her private secretary for fifteen years. Mrs Poole sent it to Miss Agnes Slack. Agnes Slack was a long-standing member of the BWTA since at least the 1890’s and a friend colleague to Lady Henry. Agnes was President of the BWTA from 1925 to 1928 and in 1927, she presented the picture to the association, to be hung in the HQ at Rosalind House in London. She also wrote a note on the back of the frame ensuring that the links between the picture and Lady Henry and Frances Willard were known and not forgotten.
It was still hanging there, when the article was published in The White Ribbon magazine in 1939; when someone must have realised it’s importance in the history of the women of the BWTA and decided to share its story.
I have done a little more research about the bigger picture from which the detail of Christ was taken. Although the article states that it was taken from the famous picture by Heinrich Hoffman which depicted Christ and the women taken in adultery – this likely refers to the picture entitled ‘The Adultress before Christ’ c1868 – I think this might be incorrect. The picture is likely to be what was is called ‘A detail of Christ at Thirty-Three’ taken from the picture entitled ‘Christ and the Rich Young Ruler’ c1888.
Below we have the head of Christ depicted in our picture next to an extracted detail from ‘Christ and the Rich Young Ruler’. Details from the main picture correlate to the detail on the portrait picture including the stone wall behind and the edges of the blocks to the right of Christ’s head. Unfortunately, the glass over the print on our picture causes some reflection on the photographed image.
This detail of “Christ at Thirty-Three” is a sensitive portrait of Jesus by the German painter, depicting Him with a tender gaze and a compassionate human expression. This has made it a popular subject for prints and reproductions.
The picture has travelled many miles between two friends, crossing an ocean to bring consolation and support in difficult times. It was only a short while before Frances died that Lady Henry has been diagnosed with a heart problem and was also dealing with the fallout from the controversary surrounding her views on the State Regulation of Vice in India in 1897.
It appears that Lady Henry was shielded from the reality of Frances’s ill-health but when she finally learned about the severity of Frances’s condition, she was willing to go to be by her side, even though she was ill herself. Unfortunately, Frances died before this was possible. Lady Henry was devastated by Frances’s death but in her faith believed that they would be re-united in eternity.
It would be good to imagine that Lady Henry had the picture hung on her own wall when it was returned to her after France’s death and that it provided her with some reassurance that one day she would indeed, meet her beloved friend once more.