This is a print I've had for a long time, but had no identifying information. I surmised that this is Helen, she of Troy, based on the hub-bub outside the window. And sure enough, 'tis so. Finding her in a book that I've since lost track of, as well as the author (maybe Bettany Hughes?), this is the caption:
This image, painted in 1914, is what Helen has become: not a part of the Eastern Mediterranean but distinct from it, a white woman attended to by an oriental slave. A vain and shallow creature, lost in her own image while behind her Troy burns.
I still can't identify the artist for now.
3 comments:
Very nice... but no idea of the artist...
Well, you may not know the artist, but you certainly know where to look. My wife thought the image looked familiar, which should have clued me in.
I used my library card and got a copy of Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore by Bettany Hughes (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005). The image is The Toilet of Helen, oil on canvas, 1914. It's by Bryson Burroughs and is in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. My wife went to college at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and, sure enough, she had recalled seeing the painting, although she didn't recall where until I found this.
Yay, thank you docnad!
Post a Comment