The End of Time – CL11
Published by Baxter exclusively for use as the frontispiece to a quite hard to find small book of poetry ‘The Perennial’.
Under the print is “The End of Time - Baxter's Oil Colour Printing, 29, King Square," and "Page 74". The size of the actual print is 8.4 x 5.4 cm plus borders and text.
Courtney Lewis in his 1924 book ‘The Picture Printer’ quotes a short poem from the page 74 that was noted under the print:
"I saw an angel on a cloud
Come floating through the air.
The heavens looked like the world's dark shroud
All blacken'd with despair.
With mighty stride he stalked forth,
Encompassing the South and the North.”
and references “The Perennial (page 74) The End of Time”
The Perennial published by William Darton & Son with Baxter's 'The End of Time' as the Frontispiece
This is actually the first verse of a seven verse religious poem also titled ‘The End of Time’ that appears to have been first published in 1830 in ‘The Lyre – Fugitive Poetry of the 19th century’ published by John Sharpe Piccadilly (London) and later in a few other publications including this. It is anonymous but the poem always starts with a passage from ‘Revelations Chap X’ of The Bible. Although CL only quotes the first verse in his book in The Perennial it is in full and spread over four small pages.
There are a number of editions published by Darton & Sons but unfortunately none are dated. This print only appears in some, if not only the one edition. Other editions I have seen contain basic wood block or chromolithographic prints. One with a ‘souvenir’ design frontis by C Graf, so dating from the mid 1840’s onwards, and another with an additional title page in colour but also most probably from a later edition, both are quite basic and nowhere near the quality of the Baxter print. CL states that a coloured lithograph of the Baxter print, by an unstated printer, can also be found in another later edition.
Baxter’s address is shown as King Square which he left in March 1835 so this must have been printed prior to then but an advert in ‘The Athenaeum’ gives us the exact date of publication of the book. The issue of 13th June 1835 states “Published today The Perennial, a collection of moral and religious poetry…” and states “with a fine print in oil colours” which can only refer to this Baxter print.
‘The Athenaeum’ of 13th June 1835 states “Published today The Perennial, a collection of moral and religious poetry…” and states “with a fine print in oil colours”
When you consider that this beautiful little print was produced only about a year after his very first prints in colour i.e. the comparatively very basic Dippers and Nest and Little Grebes And Nest for Mudie’s ‘Feathered Tribes of the British Isles’, it shows the dramatic improvements Baxter had made in a relatively short period.
It is printed by woodblocks only and pre-dates his detailed patent application by only a few months.
The print must have been designed purposely to illustrate this book as its title is the same as the poem which itself is referenced under the print, ‘Page 74’.
Although it appears to be a unique design what it shows has been depicted many times before and after and shows a scene as described in The Bible, Revelation 10:1 “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire”. Which must be the reason the Revelations passage is always quoted at the top of the poem.
To prepare his print and cut his colour blocks Baxter would have needed a fully coloured design to copy. If he was copying another artist’s work he would virtually always credit as such under the print. As this makes no mention of an artist it is reasonably safe to assume that this was an original Baxter design.
A few years ago I was contacted by Jeremy Carson of The Antiquarian Book Company in Brighton. We exchanged some involved emails about the original designs Baxter would have worked from. If he wasn’t copying directly on to his steel plates and colour blocks from an original painting he would have to have prepared a detailed sketch, perhaps adding notes about the colours etc. These would have been then worked up into watercolours for him or, in later days, his apprentices to work from. Jeremy asked what would have happened to these original designs? Some still do exist but I feel many would have been discarded as once the plates were prepared I feel Baxter felt his ‘art’ was the finished print and that the watercolours and provisional sketches were just ‘tools of the trade’ and as such simply discarded to a workbench drawer etc. Baxter rarely seems to have signed any works so some could still be waiting to be found as their Baxter connection remains unknown.
After a few emails Jeremy then sent me images of what we both consider to be Baxter’s original watercolour of ‘The End of Time’. It is slightly larger than the print, but that is something Baxter would have easily coped with, sizing it down to the required size to fit in the book.
To the left Baxter's 'The End of Time' and to the right the original watercolour
As I would expect it is unsigned and an ‘exact’ likeness of the print as, apart from being a fine artist Baxter was also an excellent copyist, known for his excellent likenesses of many well-known paintings.
When I compare this to a similar size watercolour of Baxter's ‘Caroline Mordaunt’ from my own collection that I also believe to be by Baxter's hand, the style and composition are incredibly similar. That was published in a book of the same name also in 1835 so both watercolours must have been painted within months of each other.
The watercolour of Caroline Mordaunt can be traced to Baxter collections for at least 70 years, maybe longer. Neither are signed so we can never be 100% sure that either of these are by Baxter. Looking at what Baxter needed in order to prepare his engraved plates and finished prints and also from looking at the few of the watercolours that are known to be by him I feel 99% confident that both were painted by Baxter.
Right: The watercolour of 'The End Time' and below the watercolour of 'Caroline Mordaunt' both greatly enlarged showing the similarly in style
