The Voyage of St. Brandan

Unknown date, collection of Frederick R. Koch (Sutton Place, Surrey, England). By 1999, with Nevill Keating Pictures, Ltd. (London, England); 1999, sold by Nevill Keating Pictures, Ltd. (London, England) to John H. Schaeffer, A.O. (Syndey, Australia); unknown date, with Nevill Keating Pictures, Ltd. (London); 2004, sold by Nevill Keating Pictures, Ltd. (London) to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called the Chazen Museum of Art].

• Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 22, No. 1, January- June 2005. p. 11
• Chazen Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 27, No. 1, January-June 2010. p. 3

• Pre-Raphaelites and the Olympians: Selected Works of Victorian Art: Art Gallery of new South Wales, 4/19/2001–9/9/2001
• Memorial Exhibition of Paintings and Watercolours by the late E. Reginald Frampt: Fine Art Society, London, 3/1/1924–3/31/1924
• Autumn Exhibition of Modern Art: the Thirty-Eighth: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 9/14/1908–1/2/1909
• Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts 48th Exhibition 1909, The: Royal Institute of Fine Art, Glasgow
• Exhibition at New Gallery, London, 1908: New Gallery, London
• Paris Salon, 1910: Paris Salon, Paris

This painting captures a dramatic nocturnal scene at sea when Saint Brendan discovers a tortured, shackled man on an iceberg. Saint Brendan stands in his small wooden sailing ship, holding a long oar. The ship’s stern is embellished with golden icon paintings, and a lit lantern hangs from the boat’s rigging, casting a warm glow. The saint wears a light blue robe and a purple sash that streams behind him in the strong wind, his grey hair covered by a black hood. A faint, translucent blue halo surrounds his head. With a rosery hanging from his waist, he raises his left hand in shock, his head turned in profile toward the apparition of a man on the right. This man, known to be Judas, is half-naked, with red hair and a shaggy beard, kneeling on a jagged outcrop of blue ice, looking up in agony, his clawed hands clutched to his chest. A rope is tied around his neck and shackles are clamped around his ankles. Only a tattered piece of black fabric covers his waist, while a brown cape flies wildly behind him. The scene is dominated by intense blue and dark tones of the tumultuous water and a cold, blue sky dotted with stars and a crescent moon in the upper right corner.

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