.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The tale of Tristram and Isolde enjoyed an international vogue in the middle ages and is one of the oldest romances of the English vernacular, predating the parallel tale of Lancelot and Guinevere; it was only incorporated into the Arthurian cycle by Malory in his Morte d'Arthur (1485). It found new popularity at the end of the 19th century after Wagner made it the subject of an opera in 1865.
The story, as told in the opera, relates how Isolde, an Irish princess, attended by her companion Brangne, travels from her home in Ireland to Cornwall, there to become the bride of King Mark. Mark has sent his nephew, Tristram, to accompany Isolde to his kingdom. Having been wounded in killing the knight to whom Isolde was formerly betrothed, and having been nursed by her, Tristram falls in love with Isolde, and she with him. They consider that poison is the only remedy for their thwarted passion, but instead, Brangne administers a love-philtre which only increases their longing. King Mark discovers their infatuation, and, in combat with the jealous courtier, Melot, Tristram is wounded. Tristram returns to his native Brittany, from whence his retainer Kurwenal summons Isolde, convinced that her magic powers can heal her lover; Tristram, delirious, tears away his bandages and dies in her arms.
On learning the truth about the love-philtre King Mark resolves to forgive his nephew. Seeing him approach Tristram's castle, Kurwenal thinks they are under attack. A massacre ensues, and Isolde, distraught and heartbroken by the loss of those whom she loves, falls lifeless on the body of Tristram.
Such a subject would have been doubly appealing for Rheam, who not only painted other literary themes in the Romantic tradition such as Keats's La Belle Dame sans Merci and 'Quia Multum Amavit', a subject that had also interested Burne-Jones, but who moved to Cornwall from his native Birkenhead in 1890, settling first at Polperro before joining the artistic community at Newlyn. With his romantic sensibility Rheam must have been aware of the many legends surrounding Cornwall's Celtic past, and Arthurian themes surface elsewhere in his work. In The Fairy Woods, for example, which sold in Christie's London from the collection of Isabel Goldsmith, 8 November 1996, lot 41, (63,250), a knight is glimpsed in the distance, while a princess, drawn from the same model as the figure in the present picture, is led through bluebells. A representation of a later literary theme, The Sleeping Beauty, was also sold at Christie's London on 7 November 1997, lot 36, for 109,300, the world auction record for the artist.
The story, as told in the opera, relates how Isolde, an Irish princess, attended by her companion Brangne, travels from her home in Ireland to Cornwall, there to become the bride of King Mark. Mark has sent his nephew, Tristram, to accompany Isolde to his kingdom. Having been wounded in killing the knight to whom Isolde was formerly betrothed, and having been nursed by her, Tristram falls in love with Isolde, and she with him. They consider that poison is the only remedy for their thwarted passion, but instead, Brangne administers a love-philtre which only increases their longing. King Mark discovers their infatuation, and, in combat with the jealous courtier, Melot, Tristram is wounded. Tristram returns to his native Brittany, from whence his retainer Kurwenal summons Isolde, convinced that her magic powers can heal her lover; Tristram, delirious, tears away his bandages and dies in her arms.
On learning the truth about the love-philtre King Mark resolves to forgive his nephew. Seeing him approach Tristram's castle, Kurwenal thinks they are under attack. A massacre ensues, and Isolde, distraught and heartbroken by the loss of those whom she loves, falls lifeless on the body of Tristram.
Such a subject would have been doubly appealing for Rheam, who not only painted other literary themes in the Romantic tradition such as Keats's La Belle Dame sans Merci and 'Quia Multum Amavit', a subject that had also interested Burne-Jones, but who moved to Cornwall from his native Birkenhead in 1890, settling first at Polperro before joining the artistic community at Newlyn. With his romantic sensibility Rheam must have been aware of the many legends surrounding Cornwall's Celtic past, and Arthurian themes surface elsewhere in his work. In The Fairy Woods, for example, which sold in Christie's London from the collection of Isabel Goldsmith, 8 November 1996, lot 41, (63,250), a knight is glimpsed in the distance, while a princess, drawn from the same model as the figure in the present picture, is led through bluebells. A representation of a later literary theme, The Sleeping Beauty, was also sold at Christie's London on 7 November 1997, lot 36, for 109,300, the world auction record for the artist.