Whither?, 1867

Philip Hermogenes Calderon RA (1833 - 1898)

RA Collection: Art

Trained in Paris, P.H. Calderon became a founding member of the St. John's Wood Clique, a society of artists who lived in St. John's Wood and were interested in historical subjects particularly of the most romantic era of English history, the Tudors and Stuarts. In the summer months many of the group retreating to Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and it is likely that this is where Calderon painted Whither?

The piece depicts two figures in sixteenth-century dress, an apprehensive girl following a bearded man through an outside door onto a drawbridge. The subject is typical of this artist's work in that it poses an open-ended question for the viewer to engage with. Contemporary critics felt there might be 'a tragedy for its ending' but it is open to interpretation.