John Duncan has been one of my favorite painters ever since I happened across this rather constipated-looking Tristan sharing the Love Potion with Isolde, while I was teaching a course in Arthurian romance.
John Duncan (1866-1945) was born in Dundee, Scotland to a cattleman father. John, however, had no interest in farming and turned to a career in the visual arts. He soon lived up to his reputation as a madman or mystic by claiming his painting was inspired by “faerie music.” His only marriage was to a woman he believed had discovered the Holy Grail in a well at Glastonbury. He was also a member of the Edinburgh Theosophical Society.
There have been many mentions in passing of John Duncan being at Byrdcliffe, and indeed he seems like a natural fit. He taught briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago, from 1900 until 1902. Although that appointment ended in rancor, it is likely he met Whitehead and Hervey White there, perhaps attracted by their mutual interest in Theosophy. However, I had been unable to find any definitive record of Duncan’s stay at Byrdcliffe, until the opening of the “Arriving at Byrdcliffe” show at the Woodstock/Byrdcliffe Guild’s Kleinart James Center. There I discovered this plaque of St. Francis, designed by John Duncan, cast by Vivian Bevans (Hervey White’s wife), and dated 1904.
John Duncan & Vivian Bevans
Both the subject matter and the design are typical of Duncan’s work. Duncan’s hieratic figures and stylized presentation of mystical and legendary subject matter has led to his being classified as a symbolist by art critics, although he also had strong roots in the Celtic Revival. This plaque of St. Francis is a typical example of his work. It has the formal organization of an icon, with the saint’s outstretched arms and turned head echoing a crucifix, while the plants and birds with which the saint is so closely associated are distributed in a pattern that creates a flat background similar to typical icon’s gold leaf.
Henry Ford, Byrdcliffe Historian and the show’s curator, was kind enough to take down the plaque and show me the inscription on its back, which read, “St. Francis, Designed by John Duncan, Modeled by Vivian Bevans.” Arguably of even more interest is the further inscription, “Given to Alf Evers by Eileen Webster, daughter of Mary and Albert Webster.” Alf Evers was the revered Woodstock Town Historian, as well as the author of more than 50 books ranging from children’s stories to definitive histories of the Catskills, Woodstock, and nearly Kingston. The Websters were among the first families to accept Ralph Whitehead’s invitation to join the Byrdcliffe Colony. At least two of their family homes are still standing, including Hi-Lo-Ha, where Bob Dylan lived.
The design of the Byrdcliffe plaque echoes my favorite work of Duncan’s, although their subject matter could not be more different. Edinburgh’s Witches’ Well is a monument to judicially murdered witches, commissioned in 1894 by Sir Patrick Geddes, a forward-looking philanthropist. Duncan’s design highlights the impossibility of separating good and evil by depicting a foxglove plant, with a snake uncoiling from its center to twine around the heads of Aesculapius, the god of medicine, and his daughter Hygeia, the goddess of health. The Foxglove plant is at once poisonous and an important medicinal source, and the serpent is at once a symbol of evil and wisdom. The year 1722, when the persecution of witches was most prevalent, appears in the bottom right corner. The bottom left displays the year of the sculpture’s completion and the sculptor’s initials: 18 (JD) 94.
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