Six Sketches of Rhodes: i · At the 1884 Whitechapel Exhibition

< >

Title: Six Sketches of Rhodes: i
Actual Title: Island of Rhodes
Artist: Sir Frederic Leighton
Artist Full Name: Sir Frederic Leighton (1830-1896)
Status: R. A.
Date (Painted or Exhibited): c. 1867
Type: Oil on canvas
Current Location: Private Collection / Bridgeman Images: PNH354637
Lent By: the Artist
Catalog Number: 56
Catalog Page: 9
Catalog Description: Rhodes is a Greek island in the Mediterranean, and these sketches are full of "the deep divine dark dayshine of the sea." "There the sunshine in the happy glens is fair," and Greek poets called the island "the bride of the sun." There was a fable, too, that when the gods made division of the earth among them, the sun-god did not obtain his portion; and when the other gods were for casting lots afresh, he suffered them not, for he said that, beneaht the hoary sea he saw a certain land waxing from its root in the earth, which should bring forth food for many men, and rejoice in flocks, and that he wanted this for his portion. And the gods granted him his wish, and in the end there spraing up from the sea the Island of Rhodes.
Alt-Text: A serene coastal landscape at sunset, with rocky foreground, calm water reflecting golden light, and distant mountains under a clear sky.
Image Credit: Photo © Peter Nahum at The Leicester Galleries, London / Bridgeman Images. Shared with permission from Bridgeman Education under fair use.