Arthur Hughes
British, 1832 - 1915
April Love
Date: 1855-56
Photo Credit: Tate Gallery, London/Art Resource, NY
The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856 with lines from Tennyson's The Miller's Daughter'
'Love is hurt with jar and fret.
Love is made a vague regret;
Eyes with idle tears are wet,
Idle habit links us yet.
What is love? for we forget:
Ah, no! no!'
"Exquisite in every way; lovely in colour; most subtle in the quivering expression of the lips, and sweetness of the tender face, shaken, like a leaf by winds upon its dew, and hesitating back into peace".
(Academy Notes, 1856, 14.68).
The Tate Gallery purchased the painting in 1909.
Hughes used several young women as models, but his favourite was
Tryphena Foord whom he married. The model for the lover in the
background was Hughes' friend, Alexander Munro, in whose Pimlico
studio Hughes completed the painting.
April Love was William Morris' favourite Pre-Raphaelite painting
and he purchased it soon after seeing it for the first time.
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