The Fisherman and the Syren

Last updated

The Fisherman and the Syren
Leighton-The Fisherman and the Syren-c. 1856-1858.jpg
Artist Frederic Leighton
Yearc.1856–1858
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions66.3 cm× 48.7 cm(26.1 in× 19.2 in)
Location Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

The Fisherman and the Syren is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1858. It is a composition of two small full-length figures, a mermaid clasping a fisherman round the neck. [1] The picture is in the collection of the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.

Contents

Description

The painting is a composition of two figures with rocks and the sea. A young Sicilian fisherman slipping asleep down a rock into the tide is grasped round the neck by a water-nymph. He is swarthy in complexion, with dark curly hair, and nude save only for a crimson loin-cloth, his purple drapery being cast aside upon the grey rocks. The nymph is nude and blonde; her long, wavy brown hair is laced with pearls. [2]

The subject is taken from "Der Fischer", a ballad by Goethe written in 1779:

Half drew she him,
Half sunk he in,
And never more was seen. [1]

Analysis

According to Jones, et al., Leighton's literary pictures "suggest a preoccupation with women as destroyers", and The Fisherman and the Syren represents that theme "quite unequivocally". [3] Leighton here explores the femme fatale archetype that became popular in Victorian art, notably in the work of the Symbolists. [4] In 1861, in a letter to his father, Leighton explained that the picture was "as little naturalistic as anything could be". [5] [6]

History

The Fisherman and the Syren Frederic Leighton - The Fisherman and the Syren.jpg
The Fisherman and the Syren

In 1858, Leighton was represented on the Royal Academy walls by two pictures: The Fisherman and the Syren, and The County Paris, accompanied by Friar Lawrence, comes to the house of the Capulets to claim his bride, both small canvases painted in Rome and in Paris. [7]

The Fisherman and the Syren, which was painted for Signor Mario, the famous singer, initially received little friendly criticism, and the reception was generally lukewarm. [2] [8] [4] However, a positive review appeared in The Daily Telegraph :

The picture is not of any commanding size, nor does it relate any very exciting legend. The story is of the mystic Undine tinge, and with a shadowy semblance  in it to that strange legend, current among the peasants of Southern Russia, of the "white Lady" with the long hair, who, with loving and languishing gestures, decoys the unwary into her fantastic skiff, then, pressing her baleful lips to theirs, folds them to her fell embrace, and drags them shrieking beneath the engulphing waves. The "Fisherman and Syren" of Mr. Leighton has something of this unreal, legendary fatality pervading it throughout. There is irresistible seductiveness on the one side, pusillanimous fondness on the other. That it is all over with the Fisherman, and that the Syren will have her wicked will of him to his destruction, is palpable. But it is not alone for the admirable manner in which the story is told that we commend this picture. The drawing is eruditely correct, most graceful, and most symmetrical. The Syren is a model of form in its most charming undulations. The Fisherman is a type of manly elegance. That Mr. Leighton understands, to its remotest substructure, the vital principle of the line of beauty, is pleasurably manifest. But there is evidence here even more pleasing that the painter, in the gift of a glowing imagination, and a refined ideality, in his mastery of the nobler parts of pictorial manipulation, is worthy to be reckoned among the glorious brotherhood of disciples of the Italian masters—of the Grand Old Men whose pictures, faded and time-worn as they are, in the National Gallery hard by, laugh to scorn the futile fripperies that depend for half their sheen on gilt frames and copal varnish. This young artist is one of Lanzi's and Vasari's men. He has plainly drunk long and eagerly at the Painter's Castaly: the fount of  beauty and of grace that assuaged the thirst of those who painted the "Monna Lisa" and the "Belle Gardinière;" who modelled the "Horned Moses" and the "Slave;" who designed Peter's great Basilica, and the Ghiberti Gates at Florence. [9] [10]

The picture was shown again in the 1897 retrospective exhibition of Leighton's art. It was first entitled The Fisherman and Syren, and afterwards The Mermaid. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John William Waterhouse</span> English painter (1849–1917)

John William Waterhouse was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His paintings are known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend. A high proportion depict a single young and beautiful woman in a historical costume and setting, though there are some ventures into Orientalist painting and genre painting, still mostly featuring women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederic Leighton</span> English painter and sculptor (1830–1896)

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton,, known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British Victorian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter in an academic style. His paintings were enormously popular and expensive, during his lifetime, but fell out of critical favour for many decades in the early 20th century.

<i>Flaming June</i> Painting by Frederic Leighton

Flaming June is a painting by Sir Frederic Leighton, produced in 1895. Painted with oil paints on a 47-by-47-inch square canvas, it depicts a sleeping woman in a sensuous version of his classicist Academic style. It is Leighton's most recognisable work, and is much reproduced in posters and other media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Dene</span> English stage actress and artists model

Dorothy Dene, born Ada Alice Pullen, was an English stage actress and artist's model for the painter Frederick Leighton and some of his associates. Dene was considered to have a classical face and figure and a flawless complexion. Her height was above average and she had long arms, large gray-blue eyes and abundant golden chestnut hair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Reinhard Weguelin</span> British painter (1849–1927)

John Reinhard Weguelin was an English painter and illustrator, active from 1877 to after 1910. He specialized in figurative paintings with lush backgrounds, typically landscapes or garden scenes. Weguelin emulated the neo-classical style of Edward Poynter and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, painting subjects inspired by classical antiquity and mythology. He depicted scenes of everyday life in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as mythological subjects, with an emphasis on pastoral scenes. Weguelin also drew on folklore for inspiration, and painted numerous images of nymphs and mermaids.

<i>The Painters Honeymoon</i> Painting by Frederic Leighton

The Painter's Honeymoon is an oil painting on canvas by the English painter Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, produced c. 1864 and now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

<i>Cymon and Iphigenia</i> (Leighton painting) Painting by Frederic Leighton

Cymon and Iphigenia is an oil on canvas painting by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton. The painting does not bear a date but was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1884. The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, purchased it at a Christie's auction in London in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Der Fischer (Goethe)</span> 1779 poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Der Fischer" is a ballad by Goethe, written in 1779. Goethe's poem describes an exchange between a fisher and a mermaid who accuses him of luring her brood. As revenge, she enchants him with her song and pulls him into the water.

Emilie Isabel Barrington, was a British biographer, artist, and novelist. She became associated with the Holland Park Circle, was instrumental in establishing Leighton House Museum, and co-founded the Kyrle Society.

The Bath of Psyche is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1890. It is in the collection of Tate Britain.

Crenaia, the Nymph of the Dargle is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1880. It is in the collection of Juan Antonio Pérez Simón.

<i>Venus Disrobing for the Bath</i> Painting by Frederic Leighton

Venus Disrobing for the Bath is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1867.

<i>Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore</i> Painting by Frederic Leighton

Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1868.

<i>Winding the Skein</i> Painting by Frederic Leighton

Winding the Skein is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1878.

<i>Nausicaa</i> (Leighton) Painting by Frederic Leighton

Nausicaa is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1878.

<i>The Music Lesson</i> (Leighton) Painting by Frederic Leighton

The Music Lesson is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1877.

<i>The Daphnephoria</i> (Leighton) Painting by Frederic Leighton

The Daphnephoria is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1876.

<i>The Syracusan Bride leading Wild Animals in Procession to the Temple of Diana</i> Painting by Frederic Leighton

The Syracusan Bride Leading Wild Animals in Procession to the Temple of Diana, also known as A Syracusan Bride Leading Wild Beasts in Procession to the Altar of Diana, is an oil painting by the English artist Frederic Leighton, which was first exhibited, to a favourable reception, at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1866.

<i>Acme and Septimius</i> (Leighton) Painting by Frederic Leighton

Acme and Septimius is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1868. Leighton took the subject from a love poem by the Roman poet Catullus.

<i>Psamathe</i> (Leighton) Painting by Frederic Leighton

Psamathe is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1880.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rhys 1900, p. 16.
  2. 1 2 Staley 1906, p. 53.
  3. Jones, et al. 1996, p. 74.
  4. 1 2 Ash 1995, p. 10.
  5. Jones, et al. 1996, p. 122.
  6. Barrington 1906, p. 62.
  7. Barrington 1906, p. 36.
  8. Rhys 1900, p. 107.
  9. The Daily Telegraph . 3 May 1858. p. 6.
  10. Barrington 1906, p. 36–37.

Sources