Sir William Fettes Douglas (1822–1891), “The Spell”
Oil on canvas, 1864
A painting, much wider than it is tall, showing a man in a black robe and black skullcap holding a long wand, which he touches against the stone-flagged floor. In front of him, an age-browned skull sits on top of a white sheet and an unsheathed sword, all contained within a chalk circle. A table covered with a faded green cloth, bearing a jumble of old books, sits in a low alcove. Another man, partly concealed behind the first, sits in the alcove reading. A small square window looks out onto an eerie landscape of moonlit pillars on the shore of a lake or sea.
William Fettes Douglas was fascinated by alchemy & mysticism. Here, a magician is trying to raise the spirit of a dead man. The stone walls, with their strange carvings, are slightly disconcerting, & the moonlight lights up the room with a surreal intensity
www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-arti...