THE SOUTHING OF THE SUN.

Photos: Jonathan Russell.

  • Title(s): The Southing of the Sun (Manchester Art Gallery).
  • Description: An older woman facing the viewer in a mountainous rural landscape, her arms spread apart, looking at and showing her palms to the viewer, wearing simple green shirt and skirt, gold earrings but no other jewellery; paintwork of impressionistic quality, not finely finished.
  • Media: oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery.
  • Dimensions: “framed: 7.5 cm (depth); 143.4 cm (height); 120.6 cm (width) / unframed: 111.9 cm (height); 88.9 cm (width)” Manchester Art Gallery.
  • Signature/date/other text: “Annie L Swynnerton / 1911”, bottom right.
  • History:
    • 1911 – Signed and dated.
    • 1922 – Present in Annie’s studio (photo in The Times, 25 Nov 1922).
    • 1923 – “purchased from the artist [by Manchester Art Gallery], 1923” Manchester Art Gallery.
    • 1923 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery – Paintings by Mrs Swynnerton, no. 14, “Painted at Nemi” (catalogue).
    • 2026 July 16 to 2018 Apr 29 – The Edwardians – Collections display Manchester Art Gallery.
    • 2018 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
  • Location: Manchester Art Gallery.

The title is taken from a line in the Ralph Waldo Emerson poem, May Day.

Why chidest thou the tardy Spring?
The hardy bunting does not chide;
The blackbirds make the maples ring
With social cheer and jubilee;
The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee,
The robins know the melting snow;
The sparrow meek, prophetic-eyed,
Her nest beside the snow-drift weaves,
Secure the osier yet will hide
Her callow brood in mantling leaves;
And thou, by science all undone,
Why only must thy reason fail
To See the southing of the sun.

The picture was painted near Nemi, a town in the Alban Hills, 15 miles south-east of Rome. (Information from notice by painting when exhibited Manchester 2018-2019.)

A photo in The Times, 25 Nov 1922, showing Annie standing by The Southing of the Sun (and a version of Joan of Arc) in her studio. She sold The Southing of the Sun to Manchester Art Gallery the following year.

1922-11-25-times

Page last updated 11 May 2025.