''The Victory of Faith'' is an
oil on canvas painting by Irish artist
Saint George Hare
Saint George Hare (5 July 1857 Limerick – London, 1933) was an Irish artist.
Life
He was the son of George Frederick Hare, a dentist from Ipswich, and his wife, Ella, from County Wexford.
He was formally educated in art in Limerick Schoo ...
that was completed in 1891. It depicts two sleeping
nude
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...
women, one shackled, likely
Christian martyrs sentenced to death by beasts (see ''
damnatio ad bestias'').
''The Victory of Faith'' is one of several paintings by Hare showing shackled women, another notable example being ''
The Gilded Cage''. A contemporary article in ''The Homiletic Review'' called it an "impressive depiction of Christian faith and steadfastness" and described the two women to be in a "sisterly embrace",
while a modern description by
Kobena Mercer named the work as an example of an interracial
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
couple, likening it to ''Les Amis'' by
Jules Robert Auguste
Jules Robert Auguste (1789 – 15 April 1850) was a French painter associated with Romanticism and classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, ...
.
''The Victory of Faith'' was exhibited at the
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1891
and at the
World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.
It is currently at the
National Gallery of Victoria in
Melbourne, having been donated to the gallery in 1905.
Notes
References
1891 paintings
Irish paintings
Nude art
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