The Long Engagement

Arthur Hughes

Date: c. 1854 - 59

Materials: Oil on canvas

Parts nicely painted

'The Long Engagement' apparently evolved out of an unfinished attempt at the Shakespearean subject of 'Orlando in the Forest of Arden', previously treated by Deverell.

On a visit to Rossetti's studio on 13 March 1854, G. P. Boyce noted, "A young man of the name of Hughes was painting a picture of Orlando inscribing his mistress' name on a tree. Parts nicely painted".

Practical difficulties

In a letter written to William Allingham in the following summer, Hughes described "painting wild roses into 'Orlando'" with the usual practical difficulties of Pre-Raphaelite truth to nature: "One day a great bee exasperated me to a pitch of madness by persisting in attacking me, the perspiration drizzling down my face in three streams the while".

Over fifty years later, Hughes stated that he had "painted with much care a background for an 'Orlando and Rosalind', but wiped out the figures before they were completed and substituted modern lovers, and called the picture 'The Long Engagement'."

Thwarted love 

The man is recognisable from his clothes as a curate, and is presumably without sufficient financial means to marry - perhaps not even to become engaged, as the young woman's left hand displays no ring.

The length of their courtship is indicated by the ivy having grown over her name (Amy), cut long ago into the tree;

Possibly the choice of name was inspired by Tennyson's poem "Amy", although it was also the name of the artist's mother and of his second child, who was born on 15 December 1857.