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The
painting Gentle Spring was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865.
It was accompanied by a sonnet it inspired, by Algernon C. Swinburne
(Posthumous Poems p.112). The figure, called by Swinburne the ‘virgin
mother’ of ‘gentle days and nights’, also represents
Prosperpine, whose return from the Underworld accompanies the return
of spring. References to the transience of the seasons pervade the
painting: dandelion clocks and butterflies represent fragility;
apple blossom indicate the cycle of bearing fruit and subsequent
decay into winter; the rainbow in the background is one of nature’s
most transitory effects; and the figure herself almost crushes the
flowers of spring underfoot. The flowers are all carefully depicted
and readily identifiable: snowdrops and crocuses adorn her hair;
anemones, narcissus, cornflowers, wallflowers, nasturtiums and pansies
are strewn at her feet. The background was painted in May-June 1864,
in the garden of Sandys’s friend, the poet George Meredith,
at Copsham Cottage, Esher. The female figure, although inspired
by classical statuary such as the ‘Oxford Bust’ in the
Randolph Gallery, was perhaps Millie Jones, whose sister Mary became
Sandys’s common-law wife. She is one of a number of full or
half-length female figures in classical draperies and symbolising
classical characters which appear in Sandys’s art at this period.
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