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How this Painting Captures the Hopes of Two Bittersweet Lovers
The Long Engagement by Arthur Hughes
Paint is usually thought to be a static medium, capable of depicting only frozen moments of time.
Yet with a bit of inventiveness, it’s possible for it to represent the passage of months and years too.
In this painting, by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Arthur Hughes, notice the tree trunk on the left side of the image. If you look closely you’ll see the name “Amy” has been scored into the bark, only to be half-covered by creeping ivy leaves.
It is unlikely that the name “Amy” was chosen by chance. The name comes from the Old French, Aimée, meaning “beloved”, a vernacular form of the Latin word Amata.
Once freshly carved into the tree trunk, the name has almost disappeared beneath the leaves, hinting at the wider subject of the painting: time threatening to overtake the first flush of romantic love.
This is a painting that tells a poignant story, one that a Victorian audience would have taken great pleasure in deciphering and even identifying with.
