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.
De Morgan
Boy meets girl but has to swim a mile in treacherous waters to keep meeting her. When she tells him how she burns with passion, he pushes his luck in the sea.
She saves Theseus’ life by her ingenuity, which wins her marriage to him. But at the first opportunity he abandons her and sails away.
Wood nymphs, Dryads, and Hamadryads, painted by Evelyn De Morgan, Félicien Rops, Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse, and others. And who dresses up as wood nymphs today?
The North Wind carries off his betrothed, in eight superb paintings by Rubens, Boucher, Evelyn De Morgan, and others. A miniature history of painting.
The short conclusion to the house of Cadmus is touching, doubly transformative, and painted by a single artist.
Princess, sorceress, seductress, wife, mother, and vengeful filicide – one of the most complex characters to paint. Known from her letter in Heroides, and a lost work by Ovid.
Three stories in a single telling, about Helios/Sol, the personification of the Sun. His role in the adultery of Venus and Mars, and his two lovers and their bitter rivalry.
A puzzling painting of a lone woman, wrestling with inner turmoil; a trap laid by a dying Centaur; a king with a thing for Hercules, and his promotion to being a saint.
His early paintings were narrative and highly original. From the 1870s they changed, becoming more Aesthetic.
The Eclectic Light Company 