Sir Edward John Poynter, PRA, RWS

◄ prev next ►

American
Austrian
Belgian
British/Irish
Dutch
Flemish
French
German
Italian
Scandinavian
Spanish
Swiss

Sir Edward John Poynter,
Bt., P.R.A., R.W.S.
British, 1836-1919

Studies for "The Vision of Endymion", ca. 1878 (The Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester, U.K.)

Signed with the studio dry stamp, l.r., EJP, Black chalk heightened with white on green paper, 14 x 19-3/4 in (35.5 x 50.5 cms)

(in an antique gilt frame)

	Provenance: Bears the dry stamp of the Poynter estate sale lower right, L. 874; Sale of Poynter estate, Sotheby's, April 24-25, 1918; Sotheby's London, November 5, 1997; a Toronto private collection. Museums and Collections: The Tate Gallery, London; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester, U.K.; The National Museums, Liverpool; The Walker Art Gallery; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College; The Bristol City Art Gallery, Bristol, U.K.

	Our magnificent, perfectly preserved drawing is of two studies of Endymion for Sir Edward John Poynter's masterpiece, The Vision of Endymion, now housed in the Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester, England. This late picture (1902) by the sixty-six year-old neo-classical painter was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1913. By this time Poynter had been President of the Academy for seventeen years. Poynter's Cave of the Storm Nymphs, which is one of his finest academic paintings. It was bought in 1891 for £203,500, one of the most expensive Victorian pictures ever sold at that time. The two figures represented are taken from Greek mythology. Selene was the divine personification of the Moon, who drove a silver chariot through the evening sky. One night she spotted a beautiful young shepherd, Endymion, sleeping on Mount Lamos with his flock. Selene was so struck by his beauty, that she descended from her chariot, kissed him, and watched over him while he slept. Selene fell deeply in love with Endymion and beseeched the gods to grant him eternal youth. Instead, they caused him to fall into a deep sleep from which he never awoke, so that she could visit him whenever she wished.