Frederick Richard Pickersgill (1820–1900)

F.R. Pickersgill's stranded figure with siren aloft alludes to Homer's Odysseus, famously tempted by Sirens, whilst the man's costume suggests an Elizabethan literary source, such as Spenser's Faerie Queene. The style and composition are distinctly redolent of William Blake (1757–1827), such as his Visions of the Daughters of Albion, 1793, and Pity, c.1795 (images 2 and 3, Tate Gallery). The figure in linear profile also suggests admiration for John Flaxman RA (1755–1826), whose illustrations for The Odyssey of Homer, 1793, Blake engraved (image 4). 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 by John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (image 5).

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