Information
In Greek mythology Medea, a magician and princess, fell in love with Jason and helped him steal the Golden Fleece on the island of Colchis. He married her but after the birth of their children he divorced her to marry Glauce. In revenge Medea created a poisoned robe and coronet and sent it to her rival. The robe burst into flames when Glauce put it on, killing her, her father, and everyone else in the palace except Jason. Medea then murdered two of their children in front of him.In this painting Medea is casting the spell which will curse the robe. Whilst Medea claws distractedly at her coral necklace, the boat of her husband Jason is shown sailing away. The influence of Japanese screens upon the artist is demonstrated in the gold background and numerous Oriental motifs, notably the cranes and the dragon. The pair of copulating frogs on the marble table in the foreground symbolise her lover's infidelity. The Egyptian cat god and dried sting ray signify her use of dark magic.Acclaimed by the poet Swinburne as Sandy's masterpiece, this painting was accepted for the Royal Academy exhibition of 1868 but with held from view as it was considered an affront to public taste. After protests and arguments in the press, the picture was exhibited the following year, possibly due to Frederick Leighton's intervention on the hanging committee. This painting caused much heated debate in The Times when it was rejected from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1868, despite it being hailed as a masterpiece by many critics. Greek legend describes Medea as a sorceress and the wife of Jason. When he deserted her for another woman, Medea poisoned both her rival (Glauce ) and her two children.
- Presented by the Trustees of the Public Picture Gallery Fund, 1925.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Frederick Sandys |
- |
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
- |
99 |
Royal Academy of Arts |
1869 - 1869 |
|
Exposition Universalle |
- |
Louvre |
1878 - 1878 |
|
Fair Women |
123 |
New Grafton Gallery |
1894 - 1894 |
|
International Fine Arts Exhibition |
87 |
Rome |
1911 - 1911 |
|
1860 Exhibition |
71 |
National Gallery British Art (now Tate Britain, London) |
1923 - 1923 |
|
British Royal Family Exhibition |
109 |
Seibu Department Store, Tokyo |
1967-10-06 - 1967-10-18 |
|
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904 |
72 |
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery |
1974-05-07 - 1974-07-14 |
72 |
Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield |
1974-01-01 - 1974-01-01 |
|
Japan and Britain: An Aesthetic Dialogue |
80 |
Barbican Art Gallery, London |
1991-10-17 - 1992-01-12 |
80 |
Setagaya Art Museum |
1992-02-08 - 1992-03-22 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
88 |
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
88 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
88 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
88 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
88 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
88 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1996-05-25 - 1996-09-29 |
|
The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism and British Art 1860-1910 |
47 |
Tate Gallery, London |
1997-10-16 - 1998-01-04 |
47 |
Haus Der Kunst, Munich |
1998-01-00 - 1998-04-00 |
47 |
Van Gogh Museum |
1998-05-00 - 1998-07-00 |
|
The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s |
20 |
Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham |
2000-10-27 - 2001-01-14 |
|
Femmes Fatales |
- |
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands |
2003-01-18 - 2003-05-04 |
- |
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen |
2003-05-17 - 2003-08-17 |
|
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites |
97 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
2005-10-01 - 2006-01-15 |
97 |
Museum Villa Stuck, Munich |
2006-03-09 - 2006-06-18 |
97 |
Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art |
2006-09-11 - 2006-11-26 |
|
Love |
- |
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery |
2008-01-19 - 2008-04-06 |
- |
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
2008-04-19 - 2008-07-13 |
- |
National Gallery, London |
2008-07-24 - 2008-10-05 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
146 |
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
2009-02-26 - 2009-05-24 |
|
Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
Notes on some Pictures of 1868 |
A C Swinburne |
1888 |
- |
p.371-2 |
|
The Artist: Being a Consideration of the Art Frederick Sandys |
Esther Wood |
18 November, 1896 |
Archibald Constable & Company, London |
p. 31 |
|
The English Pre-Raphaelite Painters |
Percy Bate |
1901 |
G. Bell and Sons, London |
p.60-1 |
|
Apollo |
A B Chamberlain |
November 1925 |
- |
p.258 |
|
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham: Catalogue of Paintings |
|
1960 |
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
- |
|
Frederick Sandys |
|
1974 |
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery |
pp. 27-28 |
|
Mythology and Misogyny: The Social Discourse of Nineteenth-Century British Classical-Subject Painting |
Joseph A. Kestner |
1989 |
The University of Wisconsin Press, USA |
pp. 171, 397; repr. pl. 3-28 |
|
Japan and Britain: An Aesthetic Dialogue |
Tomoko Sato, Toshio Watanabe |
1991 |
Lund Humphries/Barbican Art Gallery, London |
p. 109; repr. p. 20 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
Stephen Wildman |
- |
Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia |
p. 262; repr. 263 |
|
The Age Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910 |
|
1997 |
Tate Gallery, London |
pp. 161-162; repr. p. 161 |
|
The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s |
Paul Spencer-Longhurst |
2000 |
Scala Publishers, London |
p. 74; repr. p. 75 |
|
Eastern Daily Press |
Ian Collins |
19 October 2001 |
- |
pp. 40-41 |
|
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904: A Catalogue Raisonné |
|
2001 |
Antique Collectors' Club in association with Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service) |
No. 2.A.89., pp. 184-186; repr. pl. 26 |
|
Evelyn Pickering de Morgan and the Allegorical Body |
Elise Lawton Smith |
2002 |
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, madison, USA and Associated University Press, London |
pp. 100-104 and 220-221; repr. fig. 40 |
|
Femmes Fatales 1860-1910 |
|
2003 |
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands |
p. 94; repr. p. 95 |
|
Early Popular Visual Culture, vol. 3, no. 2 |
Alison Smith |
Septemebr 2005 |
Routledge, London |
pp. 151-164 |
|
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites |
Colin Cruise |
2005 |
Birmingham Musuems and Art Gallery |
p. 141; repr. p. 141 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
|
2009 |
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
146,p.215; fig.51 |
Provenance
W.H.Clabburn; by descent to his daughter Mary and son-in-law E.Meredith Crosse 1879; their son E.Mitchell Crosse; Christie's 8 May 1925 (74); Trustees of the Public Picture Gallery Fund. |
Lot 74. |
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