Wyllie & the Miraculous Draught of Fishes
On 31 October or 1 November, Robert Theodore Morrison Wyllie died at Messines on the Western Front, aged 26. Robert was the fifth child & fourth son of the famous marine artist W.L. Wyllie & his wife Marion, and belonged to the First Battalion London Scottish, the first Territorial Regiment to see action.
A few days after landing in France, they were rushed to the Ypres Salient to reinforce the 4th Cavalry Brigade. Under ferocious attack, they suffered severe casualties. The line remained unbroken and Ypres was saved, but Robert (‘Bob’) was a casualty. His body was never found, and he is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
The panel which his father (who lived in Old Portsmouth) painted as a memorial to him depicts the biblical story of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. Of two occurrences of this particular story in the New Testament, this painting shows the second, which happened after Jesus had risen from the dead. The picture suggests the richer, fuller life that is to come for those who follow Jesus Christ.
Here is John the Evangelist’s account of the event:
‘Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No,’ they answered. He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.’ When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved [John, the narrator] said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, ‘It is the Lord,’ he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.
The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.’ (John, Chapter 21, New International Version)
In the painting Wyllie took material from all around his home at Tower House on the harbour’s edge. The faces of the disciples were modelled on local fishermen: the grey-bearded figure on the lower right has been identified as Harry Grist, a waterman who lived near Wyllie; the face of the impetuous Peter (first out of the boat and nearest Jesus’ feet) is Peter White. The man with the oar in the small boat is Harry White. Peter, Charles and Harry White were all apparently Captains in the Merchant/Royal Navy.
More inspiration for the image came from the artist’s very doorstep; while Wyllie was working on the picture, he struggled with the detail of the great quantities of fish taken in nets - until one day (very unusually) a large shoal of fish came into the harbour in pursuit of herring fry. The local fishermen immediately put out and began hauling them in with nets, right under Wyllie’s studio window.
The composition, with its unusually shaped frame, was originally designed as a hinged screen to protect the mediaeval wall-painting on the E wall of the Quire transept – hence the trefoil-shaped top. In 1938 - when it was discovered that the wall painting was being damaged by damp - the memorial was moved to its present position, near the South door.
Below where the painting was, there remains a bronze memorial (by W.R. Colton) to another of Wyllie’s sons, William, who was killed in action at Montauban in 1916; this relief was originally intended as part of a Wyllie family memorial, together with the Miraculous Draught panel above.
The pictures show the painted panel; a close-up of the fishermen; the bronze Wyllie memorial; and Wyllie with his daughter Aileen working on the Trafalgar panorama, now in the Dockyard. This image is used by kind permission of the White Dog Gallery, whose website has a lot of interesting information about W.L. Wyllie.