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Description
Another in a series of five illustrations of Charlotte Bronte's novel "Jane Eyre" - the third, as the story goes, though this is not the order in which I painted them. These paintings are small, about A4 format which is tiny if you're working in oil on canvas. And I apologize for the quality of the photos!

Jane has spent the night tending to Mr Mason, Mad Bertha's brother, who has been bitten by his sister while staying at Thornfield hall. Jane, however, is still unaware of Mrs. Rochester's existence. The conversation between Jane and Mr. Rochester that ensues prepares the stage for Rochester's proposal, but also for Jane's discovery that he is actually engaging in bigamy.

Here is the passage from "Jane Eyre":

"...This done, he moved with slow step and abstracted air, towards a door in the wall bordering the orchard. I. supposing he had done with me, prepared to return to the house; again, however, I heard him call "Jane!" He had opened the portal and stood at it, waiting for me.
"Come where there is some freshness, for a few moments," he said; "that house is a mere dungeon: don't you feel it so?
"It seems to me a splendid mansion, sir."
"The glamour of inexperience is over your eyes," he answered; "and you see it through a charmed medium: you cannot discern that the gilding is slime and the silk draperies cobwebs; that the marble is sordid slate, and the polished woods mere refuse chips and scaly bark. Now here (he pointed to the leafy enclosure we had entered) all is real, sweet, and pure."
He strayed down a walk edged with box; with apple trees, pear trees, and cherry trees on one side, and a border on the other, full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweetwilliams, primroses, pansies, mingled with southernwood, sweet-briar, and various fragrant herbs. They were fresh now as a succession of April showers and gleams, followed by a lovely spring morning, could make them: the sun was just entering the dappled east, and his light illumined the wreathed and dewy orchard trees and shone down the quiet walks under them.
"Jane, will you have a flower?"
He gathered a half-blown rose, the first on the bush, and offered it to me.
"Thank you, sir."
"Do you like the sunrise, Jane? That sky with its high and light clouds which are sure to melt away as the day waxes warm - this placid and balmy atmosphere?"
"I do, very much."
"You have passed a strange night, Jane."
"Yes, sir."
"And it has made you look pale - were you afraid when I left you alone with Mason?"
"I was afraid of some one coming out of the inner room."
"But I had fastened the door - I had the key in my pocket: I should have been a careless shepherd if I had left a lamb - my pet lamb - so near a wolf's den, unguarded: you were safe."

From: Charlotte Brontë: "Jane Eyre", vol. II, chapter V

Description
Another in a series of five illustrations of Charlotte Bronte's novel "Jane Eyre" - the third, as the story goes, though this is not the order in which I painted them. These paintings are small, about A4 format which is tiny if you're working in oil on canvas. And I apologize for the quality of the photos!

Jane has spent the night tending to Mr Mason, Mad Bertha's brother, who has been bitten by his sister while staying at Thornfield hall. Jane, however, is still unaware of Mrs. Rochester's existence. The conversation between Jane and Mr. Rochester that ensues prepares the stage for Rochester's proposal, but also for Jane's discovery that he is actually engaging in bigamy.

Here is the passage from "Jane Eyre":

"...This done, he moved with slow step and abstracted air, towards a door in the wall bordering the orchard. I. supposing he had done with me, prepared to return to the house; again, however, I heard him call "Jane!" He had opened the portal and stood at it, waiting for me.
"Come where there is some freshness, for a few moments," he said; "that house is a mere dungeon: don't you feel it so?
"It seems to me a splendid mansion, sir."
"The glamour of inexperience is over your eyes," he answered; "and you see it through a charmed medium: you cannot discern that the gilding is slime and the silk draperies cobwebs; that the marble is sordid slate, and the polished woods mere refuse chips and scaly bark. Now here (he pointed to the leafy enclosure we had entered) all is real, sweet, and pure."
He strayed down a walk edged with box; with apple trees, pear trees, and cherry trees on one side, and a border on the other, full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweetwilliams, primroses, pansies, mingled with southernwood, sweet-briar, and various fragrant herbs. They were fresh now as a succession of April showers and gleams, followed by a lovely spring morning, could make them: the sun was just entering the dappled east, and his light illumined the wreathed and dewy orchard trees and shone down the quiet walks under them.
"Jane, will you have a flower?"
He gathered a half-blown rose, the first on the bush, and offered it to me.
"Thank you, sir."
"Do you like the sunrise, Jane? That sky with its high and light clouds which are sure to melt away as the day waxes warm - this placid and balmy atmosphere?"
"I do, very much."
"You have passed a strange night, Jane."
"Yes, sir."
"And it has made you look pale - were you afraid when I left you alone with Mason?"
"I was afraid of some one coming out of the inner room."
"But I had fastened the door - I had the key in my pocket: I should have been a careless shepherd if I had left a lamb - my pet lamb - so near a wolf's den, unguarded: you were safe."

From: Charlotte Brontë: "Jane Eyre", vol. II, chapter V