The Descent of Odin; and The Hero Woltemade

The story of Odin’s descent to the underworld is a Norse myth, retold in a loose translation in English by Thomas Gray (1716-1771), published in 1768. William Blake had illustrated Gray’s poem in 1797-8, in a collected volume of the poet’s work which was commissioned by the sculptor John Flaxman (now Yale Center for British Art, B1992.8.11), and the dramatic pose of Lock’s figures certainly recalls Blake.

The Hero Woltemade depicts the extraordinary contemporary story of Wolraad Woltemade, a 65-year-old South African farmer, who died trying to save sailors from the wreck of the Dutch East India Company ship De Jonge Thomas on 1 June 1773. Although he couldn’t swim, he repeatedly rode his horse into the sea, rescuing sailors who were pulled to shore holding onto the horse's tail. He saved 14 men, and on his last attempt, the ship began to collapse and six men came forward to grab onto the horse, which, exhausted, sank beneath the waves. The story was reported by the naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg, and Woltemade became an icon of bravery in South Africa. Lock depicts him as a heroic giant of a man, mythological in scale, his horse leaping into the sea towards the stranded sailors, the stricken ship behind.