Leda

The present work is 'a finished study for the oil painting, Leda, no. 2 which also appeared in Philpot's last exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1937, as no. 100. The subject clearly had considerable fascination for him as he treated it at least four times. The present version, and corresponding oil are a direct reminiscence (in reverse) of the Leda exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1932 as no. 11, although there both Leda and the swan are shown in attitudes of post-consummatory reflection. The lightning in both pictures is a clear reference to the presence of Jupiter but also underlines the magical nature of the event - as in another picture of the early '30s, Fugue. The remarkable third version, apparently not exhibited in the artist's lifetime, shows a naked figure reclining among the ferns without the swan, and is perhaps the most sensual of the three (see R. Gibson, Exhibition catalogue, Glyn Philpot 1884-1937, Edwardian Aesthete to Thirties Modernist, London, National Portrait Gallery, 1984, p. 104).