Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA, Shipwrecked Man & Siren with Lyre – Mid-19th-century watercolour painting
Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA, Shipwrecked Man & Siren with Lyre – Mid-19th-century watercolour painting
Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA, Shipwrecked Man & Siren with Lyre – Mid-19th-century watercolour painting

Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA Shipwrecked Man & Siren with Lyre

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View the full Collection: Pickersgill RA, Frederick Richard (1820–1900)

An original mid-19th-century watercolour painting – Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA, Shipwrecked Man & Siren with Lyre.

This wonderful watercolour by Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA (1820–1900) shows a male figure hunched on coastal rocks, shielding himself from a sensuous Siren figure playing a lyre.

In Greek mythology, Sirens were beautiful yet dangerous creatures, who lure sailors to their death with their magnificent voices. Famously in Homer's Odyssey, Circe warns Odysseus about the Sirens, and how to escape them: as his ship approaches the island of the Sirens, his crew puts beeswax into their ears, but Odysseus, wanting to listen, instructs his men to tie him to the mast of the ship. As the Sirens sing with their enchanting voice Odysseus begs his men to set him free, but they only tie him tighter, thereby escaping their deadly temptation.

Frederick Richard Pickersgill was a painter and illustrator who often depicted scenes drawn from history, mythology and literature, such as Shakespeare, Spenser and Milton. Pickersgill's stranded figure in the present drawing likely alludes to Homer's epic, whilst the man's costume suggests an Elizabethan literary source, such as Spenser's Faerie Queene.

The composition and style of execution of the drawing are distinctly redolent of the work of William Blake (1757–1827): the strong outlines in brown ink, delineating elegant contours and muscular, elongated limbs; and the ethereal siren hovering above the sharply angled profile of the man, creating an other-worldly and emotionally charged dynamic. Blake used a similar composition in works such as Visions of the Daughters of Albion, 1793, and Pity, c.1795. Blake was also involved in engraving the illustrations by John Flaxman RA (1755–1826) for The Odyssey of Homer, 1793.

The Odyssey was also a significant inspiration for artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, with which Pickersgill was associated, including Ulysses and the Sirens, 1891 and Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses, 1891 by John William Waterhouse (1849–1917).

In watercolour with pen and brown ink, graphite underdrawing and white bodycolour highlights. On grey paper.

Provenance: Campbell Wilson, Victorian and Modern British Pictures (on accompanying historical label).

+ Read the Artist Research

Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA (1820–1900)

Frederick Richard Pickersgill RA (1820–1900) was born into a family of artists in London. His father, Richard Pickersgill, was a naval officer but also a keen amateur painter of marine and landscape subjects. His mother, Anne Witherington, was the sister of the artist William Frederick Witherington (1785–1865), while his paternal uncle was the eminent portrait painter Henry William Pickersgill (1782–1875). His cousin, Henry Hall Pickersgill (1812–1861), also became an artist.

He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1837, where he trained in the academic tradition. Influenced by William Etty, he painted genre, historical and literary subjects, and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in the early 1840s. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1847 and became a full Royal Academician in 1857. In addition to painting, he worked as an illustrator and served as Keeper of the Royal Academy from 1873 to 1887. In 1856, John Ruskin called him 'already a Pre-Raphaelite in purpose', and a Pre-Raphaelite attention to detail can be seen in some of Pickersgill's work.

Pickersgill married Mary Hook, the sister of the landscape painter James Clarke Hook. After Mary's death he settled at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, where he died in 1900.

His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the V&A, Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and Manchester Art Gallery.

COA
+ Artwork Details

Dimensions: Height: 19.5cm (7.68") Width: 29.2cm (11.5")

Presented: Unframed.

Medium: Watercolour

Age: Mid-19th-century

Signed: No.

Inscribed: No.

Dated: --

Condition: Some minor toning. Slight surface wear towards the left-hand corners. Historical adhesive marks and/or paper remnants to the corners verso, from previous mounting. Please see photos for detail.

Stock number: KD-479