Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

Why a Barrister Stopped in His Tracks in the Summer of 1908

The summer of 1908.

The exhibition galleries in London were bustling with crowds.

It was the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy.

Sir Frederick M. Fry, a barrister, was walking quietly through the rooms.

Then, he stopped in his tracks.

An oil painting hanging on the wall caught his eye and refused to let go.

Within the frame stood a red-haired woman.

She was clad in a heavy, medieval-style green dress.

With both hands, she tenderly cradled a shallow metal bowl.

The brass bowl was filled with freshly gathered pink and red roses.

Light from a window before her cast a strong radiance upon her neck and shoulders.

In the shadows of the background hung a large rectangular mirror.

Reflected clearly upon its surface were round bottle-glass panes and a chevron coat of arms.

It was a scene bathed in quietude and imbued with an undeniable nobility.

The artist was John William Waterhouse, then fifty-nine years old.

He was celebrated as one of the preeminent figures of the British art world.

Waterhouse had composed this canvas in his London studio.

Arranging historic garments and vessels, he meticulously calculated every play of light.

Right then and there, Fry decided to purchase the painting.

The work was titled "Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May."

It drew its name from the verse of the seventeenth-century poet Robert Herrick.

The poem spoke of the transience of youth and beauty.

It offered the timeless counsel: "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."

A Deep Bond Formed Beside the Canvas

This purchase marked the beginning of a profound friendship between the two men.

Fry became an ardent collector of the artist's works.

He acquired six oil paintings alone.

Numerous drawings were also added to his collection.

Among his acquisitions was Waterhouse's 1909 painting "Lamia."

Their relationship soon went far beyond that of patron and painter.

In 1917, Waterhouse succumbed to cancer and departed this life.

He was sixty-seven years old.

Among those gathered at the somber funeral was Fry.

Fry continued to cherish "Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May."

He hung it upon the wall of his home and never parted with it for the rest of his days.

Long after the painter had passed away, the canvas remained at Fry's side.

Yet the tides of the era were shifting inexorably.

Toward the middle of the twentieth century, public taste underwent a profound transformation.

Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite art came to be regarded as hopelessly out of fashion.

The acclaim of yesteryear vanished, and Waterhouse's name slowly slipped from memory.

Many decades passed following the artist's death.

Yet the story was far from over.