Convent Thoughts

A nun stands in a garden, holding a prayer book (or Missal), and contemplating a flower – a passion flower, which symbolizes Christ’s death and resurrection. It was an ancient idea made modern by the artist Charles Allston Collins (1828-1873). He was an associate of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters who sought to evoke the ideals of the medieval world. A Catholic, much of his work was imbued by this particular religious practice. In this case, that meant a celebration of female monasticism and a set of densely symbolic images – from the lily evoking purity to the honeysuckle that stands for constancy. Painted in the garden of Thomas Combe (1796-1872), printer to the University Press and the benefactor who built St Barnabas Church, this picture also speaks of how welcome much of this was in Oxford.

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