‘The Agony in the Garden’, by David Jones
Wood engraving from A child’s rosary book: being the fifteen mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary divided into three parts; the joyful, the sorrowful and the glorious mysteries
Ditchling, Sussex: S. Dominic’s Press, 1924
Syn.5.91.24(19), pp. 14–15

Engraved image © Trustees of the David Jones Estate. We are grateful to the estate of David Jones for permission to reproduce engravings by the artist.

For A child’s rosary, David Jones etched one wood engraving for each of the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of the rosary (fifteen in total). Joanna Selborne has noted their ‘two-dimensional aspect’, the artist’s use of repetition, and the designs’ ‘rhythmic grouping’. In ‘The Agony in the Garden’, Jones depicts on the far left the arrival of the soldiers, their faces menacingly obscured in the darkness. In the centre Jesus kneels in prayer within the garden of Gethsemane, his face clearly visible and framed within his halo. To his right, the disciples sit sleeping by a gate, their faces hidden by their hands.