Herbert James Draper

The artist's studio;

Thence by descent to his daughter, Yvonne Draper (1899–1977), London;

Thence by descent until 1999;

With Julian Hartnoll, by 1999;

Where acquired by the present owner.

S. Toll, Herbert Draper 1863–1920: A Life Study, Woodbridge 2003, p. 194, no. HJD.147.xiii.

London, Julian Hartnoll Gallery, An Exhibition of Drawings by Herbert Draper (1863-1920), 9–19 February 1999, no. 36.

This superb drawing was made in 1909 for one of Draper’s best-known and most successful paintings Ulysses and the Sirens¹; ‘Draper’s sensual tour de force of erotic abandon illustrated the company of murderous sirens of which Circe forewarned in Homer’s Odyssey. Ulysses and the Sirens depicts the dramatic confrontation of the sexes in a tense struggle of sexual willpower and temptation. Ulysses is being bound to the mast of his own ship by either Perimedes or Eurylochus, preventing him from joining the sirens, who have launched a sensual assault on the vessel.’² 

Henry Blackburn wrote in Academy Notes in 1909; ‘the emphasis of the picture lies in the vivid contrast between these normal figures and the weird unearthly forms of the singing sirens… We are made to feel how soulless are these creatures of the cruel sea, whose faces are pitiless and whose very breath is a warrant of death.’³ The model for the mermaid was Winifred Green, a professional sitter who also posed for Lamia in the same year (private collection) and worked in the life classes of the Royal Academy Schools. 

¹ Oil on canvas, c. 1909, 177 x 213.5 cm. Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston Upon Hull, no. KINCM:2005.4878.

² Toll, 2003, p. 140.

³ Toll, p. 141.