Sensation and Style 1870–1910

Simeon Solomon, The Moon and Sleep  1894

The subject of this painting was inspired by the Greek myth of Endymion who, having been granted the gift of eternal youth by Jupiter, is sent to sleep forever. Solomon here shows the moon goddess Luna visiting Endymion, as she does every night.

Gallery label, August 2021

Aubrey Beardsley, Frontispiece to Chopin’s Third Ballade  1895

A horse rears up on its hind legs in defiance of its rider. The horse’s posture has been interpreted as evoking the loping rhythm of the ‘Third Ballade’ by the Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin. The drawing has been described as a frontispiece to Chopin’s composition, suggesting it could be used to illustrate the score. However, it was never published during Aubrey Beardsley’s lifetime. Beardsley had a passion for music and drew many portraits of musicians and scenes from operas.

Gallery label, January 2025

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge  c.1872–5

Whistler preferred the calm of the River Thames at night compared to the noise and bustle of the day. Setting off on a boat at twilight, he sometimes stayed on the river all night, sketching and memorising the scene. He would later paint from memory in his studio. Here, London’s Battersea Bridge can be seen in the foreground. Chelsea Church and the lights of the newly-built Albert Bridge are visible in the distance. Whistler explained ‘I did not intend to paint a portrait of the bridge, but only a painting of a moonlight scene ... My whole scheme was only to bring about a certain harmony of colour’.

Gallery label, April 2019

Sir Alfred Gilbert, Model for ‘Eros’ on the Shaftesbury Memorial, Piccadilly Circus  1891, cast 1925

This is a model for the well-known statue ‘Eros’ (or ‘Anteros’) which stands in the centre of Piccadilly Circus, London. It crowns the memorial fountain to the Victorian social reformer, Lord Shaftesbury. The sculptor wrote of ‘blindfolded Love sending forth indiscriminately, yet with purpose, his missile of kindness, always with the swiftness the bird has from its wings’. The monument was unveiled in 1893 and was the first London statue to be cast in aluminium.

Gallery label, September 2020

Aubrey Beardsley, Messalina and her Companion  1895

Messalina was married to the Roman Emperor Claudius. Rumours against her led to her murder and a decree of ‘damnatio memoriae’, which meant all public likenesses and mentions of her name had to be removed. Accounts of Messalina’s life by later Roman writers were filled with untrue stories. These included Juvenal who, in his collection of poems Satires (the source for this drawing), claimed that Messalina undertook sex work in disguise. Beardsley shows Messalina disguised in a blonde wig and hooded cloak as she goes on one of her nightly visits.

Gallery label, January 2025

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander  1872–4

Cicely Alexander, daughter of a London banker, was eight years old when Whistler painted this portrait. The artist exerted considerable control over the picture, posing the girl in the attitude of Manet’s Lola de Valence 1862, and designing her dress in detail.

The portrait demanded over 70 sittings each lasting several hours. Cicely recalled: ‘I used to get very tired and cross, and often finished the day in tears.’ Not surprisingly, the picture was criticised for its departure from the more informal formats usually adopted for child portraiture. One critic called it ‘a disagreeable presentation of a disagreeable young lady’.

Gallery label, February 2010

Andrew O’Connor, The Golden Head  1905

O'Connor was an American sculptor who specialised in funerary and public monuments, and portrait busts. He lived in Paris from 1903 to 1914 where he came under the influence of Rodin and Dalou. This head is an idealised portrait of O'Connor's second wife Jessie, who was the model for many of his sculptures. A version of this head crowns the funerary figure in the monument to General Thomas in Sleep Hollow cemetery, near Tarrytown, New York. This funerary figure is a seated female shown in an attitude of mourning and reflection.

Gallery label, August 2004

Sir Alfred Gilbert, Perseus Arming  1881–3

The deeds of the Greek hero Perseus included slaying the snake-haired Gorgon, Medusa, and rescuing the beautiful maiden Andromeda from a sea-monster. Gilbert’s statue shows Perseus preparing himself for action. The artist wrote: ‘at that time my whole thoughts were of my artistic equipment for the future [so] I conceived the idea that Perseus, before becoming a hero, was a mere mortal and that he had to look to his equipment’. The work was essentially an allegory of Gilbert’s sculptural ambition.

Gallery label, November 2016

Sir Alfred Gilbert, Comedy and Tragedy: ‘Sic Vita’  c.1890–2

The Latin subtitle to this work means 'Thus is life'. Gilbert explained that the sculpture represents a prop-boy carrying the mask of Comedy: 'He is stung by a bee - a symbol of love. He turns and his face becomes tragic. The symbol is in reality fact. I was stung by that bee, typified by my love for my art, a consciousness of its incompleteness'. While outwardly successful, Gilbert was trapped in a spiral of debt, disputes over uncompleted commissions and anxiety about his sick wife. He saw this sculpture as 'the climax to my cycle of stories' begun with Perseus Arming and Icarus. From a certain angle the face of Tragedy can be seen through the grinning mouth of Comedy.

Gallery label, February 2010

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Ena Wertheimer: A Vele Gonfie  1904

This portrait of Ena Wertheimer is one in a series of twelve that Sargent painted of her family. ‘A Vele Gonfie’ is Italian for ‘in full sail’, or ‘with gusto’, and Sargent was inspired to create this unusual portrait by Wertheimer’s enthusiasm when she entered his studio. She is thought to be wearing the robes of the Duke of Marlborough, who Sargent was painting at the same time, and poses with a broomstick (visible on the right). The portrait demonstrates the intimacy between artist and sitter, playfully undercutting the authority associated with the robes.

Gallery label, March 2025

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea  1871

Whistler painted this view from Battersea Bridge looking across the Thames towards Chelsea. The tower of Chelsea Old Church is just visible on the right, and a fisherman stands in the foreground looking out to a low barge. It was the first of Whistler’s series of nocturnes: paintings intended to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquillity of the River Thames in the evening or by night. The influence of Japanese woodblock prints is evident from the relatively small range of colours and the butterfly device at the lower centre, which Whistler used as his signature.

Gallery label, November 2016

George Frederic Watts and assistants, Hope  1886

Watts shows the figure of Hope blindfolded on a globe. She is playing a lyre, of which all the strings are broken except one. Several critics argued that Despair would be a more fitting title. Watts clarified: ‘Hope need not mean expectancy. It suggests here rather the music which can come from the remaining chord.’ The painting was much admired at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, the world fair that celebrated France’s empire. It was widely reproduced in print and often seen in Victorian households. Picasso used the painting as a source for The Old Guitarist (1903–4). More recently, Barack Obama claimed it inspired him to enter politics.

Gallery label, June 2021

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights  1872

Whistler’s viewpoint is from Battersea Bridge, looking up river. The industrial chimneys of Battersea on the left are balanced by the lights of Cremorne pleasure gardens on the other side of the Thames. Whistler frames his composition so the river spreads out as a panoramic expanse of water, leading to the vanishing point of the horizon. The paint was applied quickly, wet on wet, to produce the smooth sheen of its surface. Whistler has decorated the frame himself, using a motif of gold fish scales.

Gallery label, February 2010

Sir William Rothenstein, Jan Toorop  1894

This is a portrait of the Dutch symbolist painter, Jan Toorop, who came to England in 1885. Rothenstein later recalled that he had a ‘magnificent head’ and the ‘physical glamour of a portrait by Titian or Tintoretto’. Rothenstein emphasises Toorop’s distinguishing features, including his thick black hair and penetrating eyes.

Rothenstein wrote that Toorop was one of his first models when he settled in London, and that the study was done in one sitting as he ‘didn’t know how to repaint’.

Gallery label, August 2004

Aubrey Beardsley, La Dame aux Camélias  1894

Aubrey Beardsley was fascinated with the depiction of women at their dressing tables. Here, the woman gazing into the mirror is the tragic heroine of the novel La Dame aux Camélias (1848), by French writer Alexandre Dumas fils. Beardsley may have identified with her because she, like him, lived with tuberculosis. He added washes of watercolour to the drawing between 1894 and 1897, after it had been published in the Yellow Book, the avant-garde magazine for which he was art editor.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sir Alfred Gilbert, Icarus  1882–4

Icarus and his father Daedulus escaped from prison from the Greek island of Crete by using pairs of wings which they made from feathers and wax. Icarus, however, flew too near to the sun, the wax melted and he fell into the sea and drowned. Gilbert stated that he chose the theme because, ‘It flashed across me that I was very ambitious: why not Icarus with his desire for flight?’ The subject represented the risk of his own ambition. The vibrant surface and themes of death and the recklessness of youth, lend Gilbert’s nude a dimension of sensual eroticism.

Gallery label, February 2010

John Singer Sargent, W. Graham Robertson  1894

‘The coat is the picture. You must wear it.’ These were the instructions Sargent gave to the sitter in this portrait as he wrapped a long slim overcoat around him in spite of the summer heat. Graham Robertson was an artist, writer, collector, and a member of the artistic circle around writer Oscar Wilde. He was thirty-eight when he posed for this portrait together with his eleven-year-old poodle, Mouton. With its twisting pose, jade-handled cane and fluffy poodle, Robertson’s portrait was seen by several critics as the epitome of the late 19th-century dandy.

Gallery label, January 2025

John Singer Sargent, Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth  1889

Ellen Terry was a celebrated British actor, particularly known for playing Shakespearean roles. John Singer Sargent was struck by her appearance at the opening night of a production of Macbeth in 1888. He persuaded Terry to sit for a portrait in the character of Lady Macbeth, inventing the dramatic pose seen here, which did not occur in the production. The pose showcases Terry’s extraordinary dress, designed by Alice Comyns Carr. The flecks of cobalt blue represent the wings of jewel beetles that were stitched into the dress.

Gallery label, January 2025