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Lot Essay
RHODOPIS – THE EGYPTIAN CINDERELLA
The story of Rhodopis is the earliest known telling of the Cinderella story. Forms of the story appear on every continent but its precise origin is unknown. The Chinese version dates to the 9th century A.D. but the Greco-Egyptian legend is even older, perhaps originating about 2000 B.C. and recounted by the Greek Geographer Strabo around 7 B.C. Variants of the tale describe Rhodopis as a beautiful Greek girl who is enslaved by pirates and brought to Egypt. The other slave girls tease her for her light skin. One day, the King invites the populace to a great feast, but Rhodopis is stopped from joining. Whilst she is bathing by the river the god Horus, in the form of an eagle, steals away her golden sandal and drops it in the lap of the King, who is seduced by the divine nature of the incident and sends messengers to find the sandal’s owner. They find Rhodopis in the city of Naucratis and bring her to the king, who marries her.
Here, the sculptor Charles Fuller shows Rhodopis sleeping serenely whilst the eagle is about to take flight, clutching her slipper in his beak. The sculptor’s genius is evident in the beauty of her repose and the fine details – such as the embroidery visible on the slipper, the eagle’s plume and the delicate nature with which her hair is worked over the bed of reeds.
THE FAMINE MARQUESS
George, 3rd Marquess of Sligo succeeded to the title in 1845 inheriting a large income, and the duty it entailed, from the Westport House estate, County Mayo, Ireland. Unfortunately, his birth right coincided with the disastrous potato famine and at Westport, a small town on Ireland’s remote west coast, conditions were appalling. Westport House is a Palladian mansion augmented by James, and later, Benjamin Wyatt. During the famine years the Third Marquess could not afford to live there and he moved with his sisters to a small house in Westport town. In January 1847 the Third Marquess travelled to Dublin, together with twenty peers, thirty Irish MPs, a few Orangemen and Daniel O’Connell himself, to see what could be done to save the people. The Marquess met with further tragedy, both his first wife and daughter and his second wife and daughter sadly died within ten years of one another. His first years were mired in tragedy but thereafter the Third Marquess sought solace in travelling widely and collecting art.
As if making up for lost time in the 1850s, the Third Marquess began with gusto improvements and additions to Westport House. Spectacularly, he substituted his father’s library with a great staircase of Sicilian jasper with a bronze balustrade by Skidmore of Coventry. At the centre, before the stairs cantilevered left and right, is an alcove set with a marble statue of The Angel of Welcome, also by Charles Francis Fuller. The Third Marquess bought both The Angel of Welcome and Rhodopis whilst travelling in Italy (The Marquess of Sligo, Westport house and The Brownes, Westport, 1981 pp. 50-51). There is a photograph, reproduced here, from the 19th century showing the Third Marquess’ staircase with The Angel of Welcome in the central alcove and Rhodopis in her original position below right.
‘CAPTAIN’ FULLER
Charles Francis Fuller (1830-1875) excelled equally as a sculptor of portraits and ‘Ideal’ works such as the present composition of Rhodopis. His father General Francis Fuller wanted him to follow a military career, but after joining the army in 1847, first with the 14th Foots and afterwards the 12th Lancers, he left when he came of age in 1853 to pursue his studies in art. He travelled to Florence, where he studied under the American sculptor Hiram Powers (1805-1873) – the only pupil Powers consented to accept. They remained close friends along with another American sculptor, Thomas Ball, and formed a small expatriate community in Florence. Fuller’s home was in Casa Frescobaldi on Via Santo Spirito, and his studio on what is today the Via delle Chiesa at the back of the Carmine church. Together with Ball and Powers, in 1869 Fuller bought a triangular plot of about an acre between the Via Dante da Castiglione and the Via Farinatadegli Uberti, where they all built villas around a single landscaped park (see C. L. Dentler, Famous Foreigners in Florence 1400-1900, Florence, 1964, p. 90). Fuller’s wife was an excellent pianist and vocalist and their home was a gathering place for musicians and artists. It is likely that the Marquess of Sligo enjoyed their enlightened company on his travels to Italy and a subsequent friendship brought about the commissions of Rhodopis and The Angel of Welcome for Westport House. Fuller spent some time in Paris at the Institut de France 1856-57 and in Rome circa 1871. Returning to London in 1859 he thereafter regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. He went back to Florence in 1862, but remained in London for the International Exhibition of 1862 where, alongside his statue of Rhodopis, loaned by the Marquess of Sligo, the artist himself showed a bust of Epic Poetry.
Hiram Powers referred to him as ‘Captain’ Fuller, and around 1870, Fuller modelled a head and bust of Powers. A terracotta version of this bust (or possibly just the head) was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1873 (cat. no. 1414) and there is a bust of Powers by Fuller in plaster in the Smithsonian Museum (1968.155.10). Works by Fuller are in the Royal Collection (Undine gifted by Queen Victoria to the Prince Consort in 1859) and A Centurion which was purchased by Princess Louise and her husband, the Marquess of Lorne (and later 9th Duke of Argyll), while in Florence on their wedding tour in the 1870s. Upon Fuller’s death in 1875 The Times recorded that ‘the studio of the ex-Calvary officer became in a short time well known to English visitors at Florence’ and that ‘his “Rhodope”, the Eastern Cinderella, consisting of the undraped figure of a sleeping girl, whose features are moved by some passing dream, while an eagle with arched neck stands at her feet ready to carry away her slipper to the Egyptian potentate, attracted some notice at the time.’
The story of Rhodopis is the earliest known telling of the Cinderella story. Forms of the story appear on every continent but its precise origin is unknown. The Chinese version dates to the 9th century A.D. but the Greco-Egyptian legend is even older, perhaps originating about 2000 B.C. and recounted by the Greek Geographer Strabo around 7 B.C. Variants of the tale describe Rhodopis as a beautiful Greek girl who is enslaved by pirates and brought to Egypt. The other slave girls tease her for her light skin. One day, the King invites the populace to a great feast, but Rhodopis is stopped from joining. Whilst she is bathing by the river the god Horus, in the form of an eagle, steals away her golden sandal and drops it in the lap of the King, who is seduced by the divine nature of the incident and sends messengers to find the sandal’s owner. They find Rhodopis in the city of Naucratis and bring her to the king, who marries her.
Here, the sculptor Charles Fuller shows Rhodopis sleeping serenely whilst the eagle is about to take flight, clutching her slipper in his beak. The sculptor’s genius is evident in the beauty of her repose and the fine details – such as the embroidery visible on the slipper, the eagle’s plume and the delicate nature with which her hair is worked over the bed of reeds.
THE FAMINE MARQUESS
George, 3rd Marquess of Sligo succeeded to the title in 1845 inheriting a large income, and the duty it entailed, from the Westport House estate, County Mayo, Ireland. Unfortunately, his birth right coincided with the disastrous potato famine and at Westport, a small town on Ireland’s remote west coast, conditions were appalling. Westport House is a Palladian mansion augmented by James, and later, Benjamin Wyatt. During the famine years the Third Marquess could not afford to live there and he moved with his sisters to a small house in Westport town. In January 1847 the Third Marquess travelled to Dublin, together with twenty peers, thirty Irish MPs, a few Orangemen and Daniel O’Connell himself, to see what could be done to save the people. The Marquess met with further tragedy, both his first wife and daughter and his second wife and daughter sadly died within ten years of one another. His first years were mired in tragedy but thereafter the Third Marquess sought solace in travelling widely and collecting art.
As if making up for lost time in the 1850s, the Third Marquess began with gusto improvements and additions to Westport House. Spectacularly, he substituted his father’s library with a great staircase of Sicilian jasper with a bronze balustrade by Skidmore of Coventry. At the centre, before the stairs cantilevered left and right, is an alcove set with a marble statue of The Angel of Welcome, also by Charles Francis Fuller. The Third Marquess bought both The Angel of Welcome and Rhodopis whilst travelling in Italy (The Marquess of Sligo, Westport house and The Brownes, Westport, 1981 pp. 50-51). There is a photograph, reproduced here, from the 19th century showing the Third Marquess’ staircase with The Angel of Welcome in the central alcove and Rhodopis in her original position below right.
‘CAPTAIN’ FULLER
Charles Francis Fuller (1830-1875) excelled equally as a sculptor of portraits and ‘Ideal’ works such as the present composition of Rhodopis. His father General Francis Fuller wanted him to follow a military career, but after joining the army in 1847, first with the 14th Foots and afterwards the 12th Lancers, he left when he came of age in 1853 to pursue his studies in art. He travelled to Florence, where he studied under the American sculptor Hiram Powers (1805-1873) – the only pupil Powers consented to accept. They remained close friends along with another American sculptor, Thomas Ball, and formed a small expatriate community in Florence. Fuller’s home was in Casa Frescobaldi on Via Santo Spirito, and his studio on what is today the Via delle Chiesa at the back of the Carmine church. Together with Ball and Powers, in 1869 Fuller bought a triangular plot of about an acre between the Via Dante da Castiglione and the Via Farinatadegli Uberti, where they all built villas around a single landscaped park (see C. L. Dentler, Famous Foreigners in Florence 1400-1900, Florence, 1964, p. 90). Fuller’s wife was an excellent pianist and vocalist and their home was a gathering place for musicians and artists. It is likely that the Marquess of Sligo enjoyed their enlightened company on his travels to Italy and a subsequent friendship brought about the commissions of Rhodopis and The Angel of Welcome for Westport House. Fuller spent some time in Paris at the Institut de France 1856-57 and in Rome circa 1871. Returning to London in 1859 he thereafter regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. He went back to Florence in 1862, but remained in London for the International Exhibition of 1862 where, alongside his statue of Rhodopis, loaned by the Marquess of Sligo, the artist himself showed a bust of Epic Poetry.
Hiram Powers referred to him as ‘Captain’ Fuller, and around 1870, Fuller modelled a head and bust of Powers. A terracotta version of this bust (or possibly just the head) was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1873 (cat. no. 1414) and there is a bust of Powers by Fuller in plaster in the Smithsonian Museum (1968.155.10). Works by Fuller are in the Royal Collection (Undine gifted by Queen Victoria to the Prince Consort in 1859) and A Centurion which was purchased by Princess Louise and her husband, the Marquess of Lorne (and later 9th Duke of Argyll), while in Florence on their wedding tour in the 1870s. Upon Fuller’s death in 1875 The Times recorded that ‘the studio of the ex-Calvary officer became in a short time well known to English visitors at Florence’ and that ‘his “Rhodope”, the Eastern Cinderella, consisting of the undraped figure of a sleeping girl, whose features are moved by some passing dream, while an eagle with arched neck stands at her feet ready to carry away her slipper to the Egyptian potentate, attracted some notice at the time.’