''April Love'' is a painting by the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

painter Arthur Hughes which was created between 1855 and 1856. It was first exhibited at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

in 1856. April Love, Arthur Hughes
at the Victorian Web. Accessed 24 March 2007. At its first showing Hughes accompanied the painting with an extract from Tennyson's poem "The Miller's Daughter": :Love is hurt with jar and fret, :Love is made a vague regret, :Eyes with idle tears are set, :Idle habit links us yet; :What is Love? For we forget. :Ah no, no. Originally acquired by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

, the painting was purchased by the Tate Gallery, London (now

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

) in 1909 and has remained in the Tate collection to the present day.April Love
– Entry at Tate.org.uk. Accessed 24 March 2007. The painting depicts a young couple at a moment of emotional crisis. The male figure is barely visible, his head bent over the young woman's left hand. The woman, tears slightly overflowing, is looking down at fallen blossoms, suggesting the end of spring and of early and young love. The model for the principal figure was Tryphena Ford, whom Hughes married in 1855.Arthur Hughes – Biography
on Humanities.web. Accessed 24 March 2007.

References

1856 paintings Paintings by Arthur Hughes Collection of the Tate galleries Paintings of couples {{19C-painting-stub