Arthur Drummond Bay of Phalerum, Greece

An original early 20th-century oil painting, Arthur Drummond, Bay of Phalerum, Greece.

This seductive Aegean view is by Victorian Classicist painter Arthur Drummond (1871–1951). Drummond is known for his history and genre scenes inspired by ancient Greece and Rome: his grand oil paintings often feature young women draped in sheer, white Grecian dress. He trained under the leading Classicist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema—who, along with Frederick Leighton, was considered by many to be the finest painter of his generation. The Classicists had affinities with Pre-Raphaelitism, but diverged in their adherence to a strict Academicism. Drummond is thought to have studied with both Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens in France. The result was a romanticised vision of ancient Greece, as much about the ideals of progress in the Victorian era and the new middle-class's ability to travel, as about the history and realities of antiquity.

This dazzling Greek landscape, whilst absent of Drummond's usual nymph-like figures, nevertheless possesses an arresting sensuousness. Sketched freely and vigorously on wooden panel, it is possibly a study for a larger painting—the azure palette worthy of Alma-Tadema's grand Grecian compositions. The painting is fresh and unlaboured, and the view uncliched, suggesting that this is a painting from life: we are transported to the shores of the Saronic Gulf, the impasto rocks in the foreground almost tangibly real and the striated brushstrokes lending a translucent depth to the sea beyond.

Phalerum, five kilometres southwest of the Acropolis of Athens, was the major port of Athens before the 4th century BC, when Piraeus, on the opposite side of the gulf, was developed as a port. This view appears to look west from Phalerum towards Piraeus. But Drummond chooses to focus on the atmosphere and colour of the water rather than the civilisation beyond—Piraeus now being the third busiest passenger port in the world—only hinting at this with small flecks of distant terracotta rooftops and ancient white columns on the far horizon.

Presented in its original gilt frame. The frame-maker's label, A.W. Johnson, 152 High St, Kensington, dates from between 1906 and 1929. Drummond's address is given on the verso as 'Mole Abbey, West Molesey', a large house in Surrey, which in the 19th century was owned and enlarged by Sir Robert Carden, Lord Mayor of London.

Oil on wooden panel.