My second "Joan of Arc" appeared in 1895. As it is the picture of all others that has, on the whole, met with the most general approval, I need not refer to it at great length. As it was painted in the same year as the "Bayswater Omnibus," I had only to turn from one picture to the other to obtain that complete rest which comes from change of employment. This was to the great advantage of both pictures. In my glasshouse at home I had arranged the curtains to represent a tent, and the straw on which my model had to lie. Mr. Frank Dicksee had kindly furnished me with the armour, and the sword was copied from an old state sword of one of the Edwards in the British Museum. The descriptive text was taken from Wallon's excellent life of "The Maid." My whole desire and purpose was to paint a picture sober in tone, quiet in colour, and without "flash" or pretension of any kind.

Through the slight opening in the tent creeps in the early grey of morning. It mingles its cold light with the warm effulgence from the angel's presence, which again has overcome and turned to naught the flickering lamp-light. All these effects had to be, and were, carefully studied. The light was arranged on the armour in the simplest and most sober manner, and its effect sketched most diligently in the early morning hours. Some parts of it were repainted four or five times with this sole object in view. A suggestion has been made that it is foolish to suppose that my heroine or anyone else could sleep in armour. In reply to this I have only to remark that if Joan of Arc's words, "La ou il n'y avait pas de femmes, je dormais comme les autres; mais vetue, et armee," do not, to the full, justify my interpretation, I must plead for poetic license in the matter. It may possibly be to the point and somewhat convincing, if I state, as a matter of fact, that the three separate models who sat to me did so sleep. Their difficulty, indeed, was to keep awake. Just as there is nothing so embarrassing as to have advice offered at the beginning of a work, so, at the end, there is nothing more helpful. In this instance it was Mr. Waterhouse who kindly assisted me in this manner. He prevented me from making the inside of the tent too elaborate, as my intention led me to. He also suggested the more silverly light round the angel's head. The angel itself was commenced from a regular model, but was finished in a half-hour's sitting from one of my children, and never afterwards retouched. All that is good in it was accomplished in that half-hour.