David Edward Jenkins, DD, Lord Bishop of Durham, 1994

Title/Subject: The Rt Revd David Edward Jenkins, DD, Lord Bishop of Durham, 1984-1994
Date: 1994
Medium: Oil
Exhibited: 1994: Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Description/Notes:

There is an elegance to George Bruce’s paintings, a sense of measured understatement. In this portrait, the Rt Revd. David Jenkins sits in the robes worn by the Bishops of Durham at the coronation of monarchs, holding the Bible he was given at the time he was ordained. In the lower left hand corner stands a miner’s lamp, given to him in thanks for the support he offered during the strike.
The artist found the Bishop very different to the figure portrayed in the press, a profoundly spiritual man with a unique turn of phrase. At one salient point in the portrait, as the likeness was coming together, the Bishop’s only comment was ‘Whoopee for now’.
The rhythm created by the Bishop’s robes moves across the canvas in one long and sinuous movement like the flame of a candle. Yellows and golds are underscored by deep blue, highlighting the shimmering whites of the hair and rochet. When the portrait was completed, the Bishop commented that he wasn’t given to outbursts of exuberance but the painting has turned out as he hoped’.
(From the RSPP 1994 Catalogue)