| Sleep and his Half-brother Death | |
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| Artist | John William Waterhouse |
| Year | 1874 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 70 cm× 91 cm(28 in× 36 in) |
Sleep and his Half-brother Death is a painting by John William Waterhouse completed in 1874. [1]
Waterhouse's first Royal Academy exhibit (submitted from his father's house at 1 Scarsdale Villas), [2] it was painted after both his younger brothers died of tuberculosis. [3]
The painting itself is a reference to the Greek gods Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) who, in the Greek mythology, were brothers. Despite their similar poses in the painting, the character in the foreground is bathed in light, while his brother is shrouded in darkness; the first therefore represents Sleep, the latter Death. [4] The personification of Sleep clasps poppies, symbolic of narcosis and dreamlike-states. [5]
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Portrait painting in Scotland includes all forms of painted portraiture in Scotland, from its beginnings in the early sixteenth century until the present day. The origins of the tradition of portrait painting in Scotland are in the Renaissance, particularly through contacts with the Netherlands. The first portrait of a named person that survives is that of Archbishop William Elphinstone, probably painted by a Scottish artist using Flemish techniques around 1505. Around the same period Scottish monarchs turned to the recording of royal likenesses in panel portraits, painted in oils on wood. The tradition of royal portrait painting in Scotland was probably disrupted by the minorities and regencies it underwent for much of the sixteenth century. It began to flourish after the Reformation, with paintings of royal figures and nobles by Netherlands artists Hans Eworth, Arnold Bronckorst and Adrian Vanson. A specific type of Scottish picture from this era was the "vendetta portrait", designed to keep alive the memory of an atrocity. The Union of Crowns in 1603 removed a major source of artistic patronage in Scotland as James VI and his court moved to London. The result has been seen as a shift "from crown to castle", as the nobility and local lairds became the major sources of patronage.
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