'Bacchante'

• enlarge image

Painting details

Title: 'Bacchante'
Date: c.1892
Media: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 127 x 95.2 cm
Location: Private Collection
Picture credit: Courtesy of Leighton House Museum, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (illustrated from a photogravure)

Description

Three-quarter length standing female figure, facing the viewer. The right hand holds a tambourine which rests against the neck. The left hand is raised above head height and used to attract the attention of a deer, seen to the lower right of the composition. The figure wears a wreath around her head and is in classical dress including an animal skin, tied at the waist. The floor of a forest and trunks of trees are seen in the background.

Provenance

Collection of Arthur Manners; sold through Christie's (art dealers) on 11 October 1968 (lot 104); purchased by Old Hall Gallery, Iden (art dealers); collection of Stanley G. Harris, Portland, Orregon; sold through Christies (auctioneers) on 22 June 1984 (lot 301); collection of the Forbes Magazine Collection, U.S.A.; purchased by Jerry Davis, New York in 1998; private collection

Bibliography

• Ormond, LeonTe and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, p.171
• Rhys, Ernest, 'Frederic Lord Leighton, Late President of the Royal Academy of Arts: An Illustrated Record of his Life and Work', George Bell and Sons, London, 1900, p.50, 51, illustrated opposite p.54

Exhibition history

• 1892, Royal Academy, catalogue number 257
• 1975-1976, 'The Royal Academy (1837-1901) Revisited: Victorian Paintings from the Forbes Magazine Collection', Cincinnati Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum, New York, catalogue number 37

Reproductions

Photogravure by H. Graves and Co., 1893; Photograph by H. Dixon and Son