Born in southern Sweden, he won medals at the Royal Swedish Academy, and funds to travel to Europe. He ended up in Rome, where he married.
Cogniet
A banquet with a river god, a pitched battle at his friend’s wedding which turned into a full-scale war, a relationship involving incest, suicide and violent death, and the abduction of Helen – quite the career of a Greek hero.
The Prix de Rome changed in the 19th century. Its subjects became more obscure, and its successes few and far between.
With the exception of his early history paintings and a few portraits of men, his entire career was devoted to painting beautiful women.
The teacher of Caillebotte, Eakins, Munch, John Singer Sargent, Toulouse-Lautrec and many other artists. But almost forgotten himself.
The first of two looking at the telling of English legends in paintings: Robin Hood and his ‘Merry Men’, popular for the last 500 years.
After abandoning Ariadne on Naxos, he takes a succession of brides, battles with the Amazons, and fights for the Lapiths against the centaurs. But did he rape Helen? Paintings by Corinth, Waterhouse, Rubens, and more.
Was she abducted, seduced, or seducer? Victim or whore? Ovid’s pair of letters between Helen and Paris raises questions which many artists have tried to tackle.
The anger of Achilles almost brought the Greek war against Troy to a grinding halt. But is Homer’s account fair, or was there more to it?
How many in the White House know the story of the memorial fountain just opposite – of Butt and Millet, Tennyson, and Oenone?
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