The Garden of the Hesperides

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Lord Frederick Leighton

1830-1896

Aesthetic, New Sculpture (19th Century British), Olympian Classical Revivalist painter, sculptor, illustrator and writer

The Garden of the Hesperides

169 x 169 cms | 66 1/2 x 66 1/2 ins
Oil on canvas

Lady Lever Art Gallery

Bebington | United Kingdom

Contemporary Comment from Private Views in the Artists' Studios - 1892:

This design is full of youth, and beauty; the colour is rich and warm - almost voluptuous ... [W]e have the tree of life with its golden apples; for a rocky coast we have the beautiful Garden of Hesperides, with the purple ocean beyond. The three daughters of Atlas sit beneath a the wonderful tree, around the trunk of which is wound the body of a huge serpent. The girl in the centre, who is half-draped, caresses the scaly hide of the monster; her sister on the right sings to the accompaniment of a lyre; while the maiden on the left toys carelessly with the food which she holds in a bowl. The grace and serenity of the composition are eminently characteristic of the President's later manner.

Source: Victorian Art in Great Britain.