2. William Mulready R.A. 1786-1863

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Now Jump, 1840
Oil on Wood, 18 x 21.5cm
Signed with initial
Provenance: Mrs. Bacon, Thomas Agnew & Son, London, Private Collection
Exhibited: 1848 (“A Sketch Painted in 1840” property of Mrs. Bacon) An Exhibition of Pictures, Drawings, Sketches etc., of William Mulready R.A. at the Society of Arts Adelphi, London: in aid of the formation of a National Gallery of British Art; 1864 South Kensington Museum, The Pictures, Drawings, Sketches, etc. of the late William Mulready Esq., R.A.: property of Mrs. Bacon; 1998 Gorry Gallery, An Exhibition of 18th, 19th and 20th Century Irish Paintings, 28th of May – 10th June

Now Jump is a key work in Mulready’s career, demonstrating his abiding interest in the raising and education of children. The painting depicts a woman and child holding hands, as the infant walks along the top of a table. Wearing a large bonnet, the woman guides the infant’s faltering steps. The title of the work can be read as her call to the child, to jump into her arms. Emphasising a relationship of trust between mother and child, the painting depicts a fleeting moment in time, in much the same way as a camera might record a child’s early steps. Now Jump is one of a sequence of paintings in which Mulready explores the role of a mother, or other adult, as carer and home educator of a young child. The same theme appears in many other paintings by Mulready including The Rattle, Brother and Sister, The Toy Seller, A Mother Teaching Her Son, Train up Child, and A Sailing Match. These works were in large part inspired by Mulready’s own experiences and friendships. Early in his career, he had been employed as a drawing tutor to the children of Sir John Swinburne, and he was also a longtime friend of the writer William Godwin, husband of Mary Wollstonecraft and father of Mary Shelley. In addition to writing extensively about education and social change, in 1805 Godwin published, using the pen-name ‘Theophilus Marcliffe’ an account of Mulready’s early life.

Godwin describes the artist’s early childhood in Dublin: “The father, perceiving the boy’s propensity, took him out one day about this time, on purpose to show him the figure of an Indian, in feathers and gay attire, a sign which had just been fixed up over the door of a teashop, near Trinity College. He now took to designing flowers, with grapes and other fruit, upon the floor. The floor was an unfaithful depository; and each morning probably destroyed the labours of the day before.” [Theophilus Marcliffe (William Godwin), The Looking-Glass (1805)] When Mulready was just five years old, the family moved to London, where the young artist continued to demonstrate his precocious skill as an artist. At the age of fourteen he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy, and in 1803, aged just eighteen, he married the sister of the artist John Varley. Although they had four children, the marriage was not a success, and they separated. Throughout his life, Mulready was a prodigious worker and illustrated many books for children, including The Butterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast, The Lobster’s Voyage to the Brazils and The Lion’s Masquerade. The painting Now Jump was included in Marcia Pointon’s book “William Mulready 1786 – 1863”, the catalogue for a retrospective exhibition held in 1986 at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Dr. Peter Murray