Explore the Subject of this artwork, The Vale of Rest.
The painting is of a graveyard, as night is coming on. Beyond the graveyard wall there is a low chapel with a bell. In the foreground of the scene, there are two nuns – the heads of the two nuns are level and symmetrical. There is no evidence that they are Roman Catholic nuns. Many of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood would have known of the growing Anglican sisterhoods, some of whose sisters joined Catholic Sisters with Florence Nightingale on her mission to the Crimea.  One of the nuns holds a rosary, and one of the nuns is digging a grave. Her forearm and body strain under the weight of a shovelful of earth. The other, overseeing the work, turns with a look of apprehension and anguish.
Roman Catholic Florence Nightingale Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood rosary Crimea Anglican