Artwork of the Week: February 10
At first glance, there is nothing remarkable about this scene. Two figures stand in an English garden adjoining a humble house, surrounded by flowers. However, further inspection reveals that this is no ordinary garden painting. The halo around the man’s head and the white lily held delicately in the women’s hand identify them as the Angel Gabriel and Mary, the soon-to-be mother of Christ. This is the Annunciation.
Images of the Annunciation date back to the fourth century, yet Beatrice Parsons represents the iconic subject matter in a way that is uniquely specific to her time, placing this divine scene in an English garden and pulling from innovative art movements of the nineteenth century. Influenced by the art of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Parsons embraced their commitment to sincerity, fine detail, and the natural world, as seen here. The rising sun behind Gabriel’s head serves as his halo, and the flock of birds on the roof take the place of the single dove symbolizing the Holy Ghost. The house’s open doors add to the occasion’s spontaneity while contrasting with Mary, whose virginity has long been illustrated as a closed door.
Posing as Mary is Parsons’s close friend May Morris, daughter of the artist William Morris who spearheaded the Arts and Crafts movement in England. Elements from this movement, which emphasized organic patterns and designs, can be found in The Annunciation, from the twisting, ornamental vines in the background to the roses and marigolds in the foreground. According to the Victorian language of flowers, which Parsons would have been familiar with, these two flowers, when placed together, foreshadow “the bitter sweets and pleasant pains of love” Mary will suffer as the mother of Christ.
For further reading, see Anne Linden Helmreich, “Contested Grounds: Garden Painting and the Invention of National Identity in England, 1880-1914” (PhD diss., Northwestern University, 1994); Joseph Manca, “Mary Versus the Open Door: Moral Antithesis in Images of the Annunciation,” Source: Notes in the History of Art 10, no. 3 (Spring 1991): 1–8; and Flowers, Their Language, Poetry, and Sentiment: With Choicest Extracts from Poets, a Dictionary of the Sentiment of Every Flower, Botanical Descriptions, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1870), 158.
