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Lot Essay
This picture formed the centrepiece of an architectural fantasy built in the grounds of what was one of the most celebrated English country houses of the early 20th century. In 1907, the New York banker and ardent Anglophile, Frederick Adolphus Konig, purchased the Tyringham estate in Buckinghamshire. Twenty years later he commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to adapt one of his designs for vice-regal Delhi, and create a Temple of Music as an eye-catcher in the park. The Temple was used to stage concerts and promote high-minded thought. Konig selected this picture, retitled In Quest of Truth, from the then President of the Royal Academy, Sir Frank Dicksee, and installed it above the secular high altar at Tyringham (fig. 1). Below the picture ran the inscription: 'Seek Truth, but remember that behind all the new knowledge, the fundamental issues of life will remain veiled'.
The picture had a complex genesis. It originated from a sketch composed at the Langham Sketching Club. This evolved into a picture exhibited with the title The Ideal at the Royal Academy in 1905, no.15. The critic Arthur Rimbaud Dibdin, writing in the Art Annual of that year, thought that the canvas represented 'a painted parable of [the artist’s] own life – the pursuit of ideal beauty [which] is ever elusive and disappointing'. The title was suggested by the critic Edward Gosse, who urged Dicksee to associate it with lines from a poem by Marlowe. Eventually, when it was shown at the Royal Academy, Dicksee chose to append lines from Robert Browning’s poem, Abt Vogler: 'the Passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky'.
The critics were less attuned to such symbolism in 1905 than in later years and the picture remained overlooked and unsold, remaining in the artist’s studio for two decades. On being admired by Konig, who toured several artists' studios in search of a suitable picture for his folly, certain amendments were requested by him. The dimensions were enlarged to fit the space envisaged, and the drapery veiling parts of the male nude were removed. The arc of the rainbow was added and the position of the outcrop was altered to place the apparition beyond grasp.
Placed amongst Lutyens’ receding marble columns it was much admired by Konig’s guests, who included many of the most influential figures of the day. It was perceived to capture the restless, striving spirit of the age, especially in pursuit of knowledge and technical advancement.
The picture had a complex genesis. It originated from a sketch composed at the Langham Sketching Club. This evolved into a picture exhibited with the title The Ideal at the Royal Academy in 1905, no.15. The critic Arthur Rimbaud Dibdin, writing in the Art Annual of that year, thought that the canvas represented 'a painted parable of [the artist’s] own life – the pursuit of ideal beauty [which] is ever elusive and disappointing'. The title was suggested by the critic Edward Gosse, who urged Dicksee to associate it with lines from a poem by Marlowe. Eventually, when it was shown at the Royal Academy, Dicksee chose to append lines from Robert Browning’s poem, Abt Vogler: 'the Passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky'.
The critics were less attuned to such symbolism in 1905 than in later years and the picture remained overlooked and unsold, remaining in the artist’s studio for two decades. On being admired by Konig, who toured several artists' studios in search of a suitable picture for his folly, certain amendments were requested by him. The dimensions were enlarged to fit the space envisaged, and the drapery veiling parts of the male nude were removed. The arc of the rainbow was added and the position of the outcrop was altered to place the apparition beyond grasp.
Placed amongst Lutyens’ receding marble columns it was much admired by Konig’s guests, who included many of the most influential figures of the day. It was perceived to capture the restless, striving spirit of the age, especially in pursuit of knowledge and technical advancement.