Six Sketches of Rhodes

Title

Six Sketches of Rhodes

Artist

Sir Frederic Leighton

Status

R. A.

First Exhibited Date

c. 1867

Type

Oil on canvas

Size (HxW, mm)

257 x 454

Current Exhibition Location

Art Gallery, New South Wales: 1305.1990

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.