The Rejection

The composition of Lucy's painting focuses on the emotional turmoil of the woman, slumped against the doorway, clutching a letter. The sadness of the letter’s news radiates over the canvas. Depicted in unconventional warmth through Lucy’s subtle colour palette with subtle elements of colour such as the loose blue ribbon around the lady's waist and the patterned stool in the painting's left hand corner creating a bittersweet sadness that envelops the figure.

Additionally, the ominous shadow in the left hand corner creates intrigue into whether the painter has added the suggestion of another character.

Charles Lucy

Born in Hereford, Lucy was a British historical painter.

Beginning as an apprentice to his uncle as a chemist, Lucy continued to pursue art as a hobby, preparing his own colours and manufacturing his own brushes. He produced his first painting while still in Hereford, an allegorical celebration for the Reform Bill, which was hung in the offices of the Hereford Times. Lucy exhibited a portrait at the Royal Academy in 1838, 'The Interview between Milton and Galileo' in 1840 and then two additional paintings in 1843.

After a brief stay in London, Lucy went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under the Romanticist Paul Delaroche. Later returning to London to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. After graduating Lucy was hired by a Mr. Jones as a copyist of old masters and created various copies of historic works held in Paris and the Hague. In London Lucy shared a studio with fellow painter Ford Madox Brown before founding a drawing school in Camden Town alongside artists Cave Thomas and Thomas Seddon, where he taught for a number of years. 

Charles Lucy was also the chairman of the committee of the New English Institution from its foundation in 1869 before his death at age 59 in 1873, leaving his wife and family in financial difficulties without a pension.

Although Lucy spent most of his professional life in France, the subjects of many of his paintings are of English seventeenth century national events, such as that of Oliver Cromwell which he is best known for.

Several of Lucy's works adorn the walls of public buildings in Washington Boston, New York, and other cities of the United States.

Commissioned by: Sir Joshua Walmest, The Victoria and Albert Museum (unfinished) 

Museums: Pilgrim Hall Museum, Massachusetts; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The British Museum; Nottingham Museum; Beverley Art Gallery; National Musuem Cardiff; Shipley Art Gallery; National Museums of the Royal Navy & National Museum Cardiff.