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拍品專文
This previously unrecorded picture is a preparatory study for Solomon’s now lost oil painting of the same name, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1902 (no. 118.). This was formerly in the Robert McDougal Art Gallery, New Zealand, but was stolen in 1942. The present study follows a series of earlier mythological subjects from the artist’s œuvre in the 1880s including perhaps his most famous composition, Ajax and Cassandra (1886).
Solomon chooses to highlight both the sensuality and suffering of his heroine Psyche. She lays outstretched, almost entirely nude, with her body slightly contorted towards the viewer. She appears unconscious in a sleepy stupor. The contours of her body are accentuated by the folds of diaphanous fabric that pool around her. The picture alludes to two different aspects of Psyche’s story, the overturned vessel in the foreground might represent the forbidden casket of Proserpina, whose vapours of Stygian sleep overcome Psyche, or perhaps the cup of ambrosia that facilitates her transformation into an immortal, securing her marital union with Cupid. The scene can therefore be read as a moment of surrender and apotheosis.
There are some notable differences with the unrecovered work. The lost composition granted the viewer almost unmitigated access to the sleeping woman, her entire body positioned unreservedly towards us. By contrast, the Psyche in our picture remains much more remote, flat on her back, her head directed away from us and thus her expression less discernable. While much speculation continues to surround the whereabouts of the lost picture, this study serves as a remarkable testament to the sensitivity with which Solomon treated this subject.
Solomon chooses to highlight both the sensuality and suffering of his heroine Psyche. She lays outstretched, almost entirely nude, with her body slightly contorted towards the viewer. She appears unconscious in a sleepy stupor. The contours of her body are accentuated by the folds of diaphanous fabric that pool around her. The picture alludes to two different aspects of Psyche’s story, the overturned vessel in the foreground might represent the forbidden casket of Proserpina, whose vapours of Stygian sleep overcome Psyche, or perhaps the cup of ambrosia that facilitates her transformation into an immortal, securing her marital union with Cupid. The scene can therefore be read as a moment of surrender and apotheosis.
There are some notable differences with the unrecovered work. The lost composition granted the viewer almost unmitigated access to the sleeping woman, her entire body positioned unreservedly towards us. By contrast, the Psyche in our picture remains much more remote, flat on her back, her head directed away from us and thus her expression less discernable. While much speculation continues to surround the whereabouts of the lost picture, this study serves as a remarkable testament to the sensitivity with which Solomon treated this subject.