Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane surrounded by Eight Figures of Saints

Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen's 1877 painting of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane was made for the chapel at Baddesley Clinton, the moated Warwickshire manor house where she lived with three other women in a distinctive communal domestic arrangement. The painting reflects the strong Catholic faith of the household, which maintained a private chapel in the house. Orpen's religious paintings for this chapel form a coherent devotional program in a Pre-Raphaelite manner. The subject — Christ's prayer in the garden before his arrest — is among the most emotionally resonant in Christian iconography. The work remains in its original setting, now managed by the National Trust.

Orpen's treatment of the devotional subject reflects Pre-Raphaelite influence in its careful, earnest figure drawing and cool, detailed handling. The landscape setting of the Garden of Gethsemane is rendered with the characteristic Pre-Raphaelite attention to botanical and natural detail.