The corner of the villa, Edward John Poynter
Oil on canvas, roughly 24 x 24 inches (62 x 62 cm); link is to Wikimedia Commons; their image comes from a sale through Sotheby’s in 2007, so I assume the original is currently in a private collection.
In this finessed composition, Victorian era painter Edward Poynter give us luxuriously draped figures, a marbled and tiled interior, mosaics, a fountain, potted plants, elements of still life, and of course, birds.
This picture makes me dizzy, the artist has put so many details in that I don’t know what is close and what is far away, or what is 3-D and what is flat. The other famous Classical Victorian artist, Alma-Tadema, is easier to read and much less cluttered.
I’d say that these three females have been mythologically cornered.
Love this stuff, Charley! Thanks for finding all these gems for us! Off topic, but have you seen this from Nat. Geo.? ” ‘Lost’ book of exquisite scientific drawings discovered after 190 years.” Here is a link to the pdf downloads of the volumes, if you are interested. I’ve just started looking at them, but interesting so far.
Thanks, Sherril. Looks like it’s worth a dig into when I have some time to browse.
