Waterhouse, John William - The Awakening of Adonis

See Sotheby's: Waterhouse's great mythological subject The Awakening of Adonis (Collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber) was painted in 1899, but was not finished in time to send to the Royal Academy that year, and was therefore held over to the summer exhibition of 1900. On that occasion it was recognised as one of the artist's most powerful and characteristic works and one that aimed, in the words of one reviewer, "at representing the passionate emotions of an historic tragedy in a highly dramatic fashion" (Athenaeum, 1900, p.568). The painting may be seen as one in a series of spectacular and challenging works by Waterhouse, each of which show moments of fateful confrontation between the gods and mortals of Greek and Roman legend, and may be compared to Hylas and the Nymphs (Manchester City Art Gallery) and Flora and the Zephyrs (offered in these rooms, 6 November 1996, lot 307), of 1896 and 1897 respectively. The series ended with the painting Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus (private collection), exhibited in 1901, the year after The Awakening of Adonis.