Artist: Keeley Halswelle (English, 1831–1891)
Title: “Non Angli, Sed Angeli” (They are not Angels, but Angels)
Medium: Antique engraving on wove paper after the original by master engraver John Carr Armytage (British, 1802-1897)
Signature: Signed in the plate.
Dimensions: Image size 6 1/4 x 9 5/8 inches.
Framed Dimensions: Approximately 15 x 19 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
The title comes from the well-known remark attributed to Gregory the Great, who, apparently, was much taken with the beauty of some English children being offered for sale on the streets of Rome. Dafforne sees the picture as a new departure for Halswelle, because one of the children is entirely naked — which makes that child, he says, “the main point in the composition, and therefore that to which the spectator’s notice is most obviously drawn, instead of being absorbed, as usual, by the brilliant coloring of varied costumes….” However, Dafforne notes that there is scope enough for the artist’s love of color in the costumes of the woman and child, which certainly stand out here.
Keeley Halswelle born John Keeley Haswell, was an English artist. Keeley Halswelle was born John Keeley Haswell, son of David and Elizabeth Haswell, at Richmond, Surrey on 23 April 1831 and baptized 6 July 1831 at St. Dionis Blackchurch, London. At an early age he contributed drawings to the Illustrated London News, and took up book illustration. Work for the Illustrated Shakespeare of Robert Chambers took him to Edinburgh, where he found a good friend in William Nelson, the publisher. In 1863 he is listed as living at Bellfield House in Duddingston Village on the southern outskirts of Edinburgh. In 1869 Halswelle left Britain for Italy, and during the next few years concentrated on subjects found there. He was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours in 1882. Halswelle lived his later years at Stoner House, Steep, near Petersfield in Hampshire, where he was a ruling councillor of the Primrose League. He died of pneumonia in Paris on 11 April 1891, and was buried at Steep on 20 April. Halswelle first married clandestinely on 25 May 1852 at the Independent Chapel, Bethnal Green, to Mary Jane Blackwood Gilbert, but they never lived together and Halswelle broke off contact the following November due to her infidelity and left London for Scotland in 1854. In 1859 he successfully petitioned for divorce. He next married at Edinburgh, 18 June 1861, to Maria Browne, daughter of the advocate James Browne, and Isabella Stewart. Following her death, in 1873 he married Helen, daughter of Major-General N. J. Gordon, who survived him with two sons, Major Gordon Halswelle (1874–1935) and Wyndham Halswelle.