The Heavenly Stair, by Arthur Hughes (original) (raw)

The Heavenly Stair

Arthur Hughes

c.1887

Oil on canvas

H 178 x W 85.6 cm

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Accession no. BORGM 01113

Here, watched by angelic beings, the infant comes to his mother from heaven, moving the father to doff his cap. The painting echoes both Edward Burne-Jones's Golden Stairs, and of the Nativity scene itself. Wildman describes it as one of Hughes's "occasional triumphs" at a time when his reputation as a painter was in decline. — Jacqueline Banerjee.

Image released on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence.