Edward Robert Hughes: Wings of the Morning

Edward Robert Hughes (1851-1914)

Born in London, Hughes was a painter of romantic genre and historical subjects and was one of the leading watercolourists of the Victorian era. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and was taught by his uncle, Arthur Hughes, and worked for over 15 years as studio assistant to William Holman Hunt, both eminent Pre-Raphaelite artists. He was also closely in touch with Edward Burne-Jones, who greatly admired Hughes’s watercolour technique. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1870, and at International Exhibitions in Venice, Dusseldorf and Munich. Hughes became a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1895, and was elected it's Vice-President for the years 1901 to 1903.

Wings of the Morning depicts a floating, fair-haired nude, whose joyous arrival heralds the victory of dawn and light over the darkness. As she sweeps across the sky, bringing with her a train of doves and songbirds, she scatters the creatures of the night, including fluttering bats and a solitary owl.

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HC-1346: card size 7" x 5" (178mm x 127mm)