Prayer

Dundee Art Galleries & Museum: 272-1987-273

Artist: Rajon, Paul Adolphe

Date: c.1867-78

State: 1/2

Size: 20.0 x 15.2 cm

Medium: Etching

Alternative Title(s)	Prayer (after George Paul Chalmers)
Details	Etching. Black ink on thin, possible wove, paper. Underneath ‘Rajon Dúprès of Chalmers’ (Rajon from Chalmers). Graphite signature ‘G.P. Chalmers at bottom right.Label on back notes it was exhibited at the Kirkcaldy Fine Art Exhibition but the year is not identified. Further information on label confirms ‘The Property of James G. Orchar Esq.’ Artist’s Proof. The agent is identified as Thomas Murray & Son, Fine Art Dealers, 106 Nethergate, Dundee.The British Museum: Prints and Drawings Collection has a later impression marked with the annotation ‘P. Rajon d’apres P. Chalmers’, ‘F. Goulding Imp.’ and signed ‘Bon à tirer / Rajon’.
Description	The etching is based on a painting (location unknown) by Chalmers. Born at Montrose, Chalmers (1833-1878) studied at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh under Robert Scott Lauder.He became an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1867 and a full member in 1871. Unlike many of his contemporaries who relocated to London Chalmers remained Edinburgh throughout his working life.He died after being mugged close to the junction of South Charlotte Street and Rose Street in Edinburgh. A police constable found him unconscious and with a fractured skull at the bottom of a set of steps. He never regained consciousness.Orchar collected a substantial number of paintings by the pupils or Robert Scott Lauder, namely A.H. Burr, John Burr, Hugh Cameron, Robert Herdman, William McTaggart, William Quiller Orchardson, John Pettie and George Paul Chalmers. He also developed strong friendships with the artists, notable McTaggart, Pettie and Chalmers. According to F.G. Stephens Rajon produced a number of etchings after Chalmers including Melancholy (not published), Winter, Prayer and The Legend. F.G. Stephens, Twelve Etchings Contributed to the Portfolio by Paul Adolphe Rajon. London, Seeley and Co., 1889, p.11. Stephens notes that an impression of The Prayer was No. 597 in the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1876. An impression was published in The Portfolio in December 1877.
Exhibited Dundee	Exhibited at the Dundee Fine Art Exhibition, Albert Institute, 1881 (Fourth Gallery, No. 827) and marked as ‘Property of J.G. Orchar, Esq.’. Dundee Fine Art Exhibition Catalogue 1881, The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum.The Bath, after L. Alma Tadema, R.A. (No. 804 no price) and Charles Darwin, F.R.S. (after W.W. Ouless, A.R.A.) (No. 821 marked as ‘Property of J.G. Orchar, Esq.) were also exhibited at the same exhibition in 1881. Rajon also exhibited two prints, The Blue Boy; after Gainsborough (No. 893 £3.0) and Watchmen, what of the Night?: after G.F. Watts, R.A. (No. 901 £5.5) in the 1882 exhibition. The etching had previously been exhibited at the Kirkcaldy Fine Art Exhibition of 1880 as Prayer, after the late G.P. Chalmers, R.S.A.and marked as ‘lent by J.G. Orchar’ (No. 714). The Illustrated Catalogue of the Ninth Annual Kirkcaldy Fine Art Exhibition of 1880. National Art Library, London.
Catalogue Entry	F.G. Stephens, Twelve Etchings Contributed to the Portfolio by Paul Adolphe Rajon. London, Seeley and Co., 1889 (VIII)
Other Collections	Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Aberdeen, UK British Museum: Prints and Drawings Collection, London, UK
References	Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionary of Artists. Paris, Gründ, 2006 Rodney K. Engen, Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and Their Works. Cambridge, Chadwyck-Heley, 1979 A. Johnson and A. Gruetzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940. Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1980 F.G. Stephens, Twelve Etchings Contributed to the Portfolio by Paul Adolphe Rajon. London, Seeley and Co., 1889.

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