Berenice, Queen of Egypt. 1867. Oil on canvas. 23 ¾ x 14 inches (66.5 x 32.5 cm). Collection of Leighton House Museum, accession no. LH0022. Image courtesy of Leighton House, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, reproduced for purposes of non-commercial academic research. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This work was not exhibited at any of the principal London venues at the time it was painted because it had been commissioned to settle a debt to his patron W. H. Clabburn. Betty Elzea describes the picture as:
Full-length of a young woman in classical robes, her body facing half to the left, but with her head in profile to the left. She holds in her hands her long locks of wavy hair, presumably cut from her head since she wears a veil over the back of her head. In her left hand, she also holds up a sistrum. She stands on a patterned marble floor in front of a rose-garlanded altar. A high wall or dado with a decorative border of inverted lotus flowers, above which is a flat, gilded area, form the background, and in front of this is suspended a tambourine. Between the figure and the wall is a shrub with its foliage silhouetted against the light-toned tambourine and the bright gold of the uppermost zone. This use of gold as a background with silhouetted shapes can also be seen in Medea." [190]
The sistrum held by Berenice was a percussion musical instrument similar to a a rattle and was used by female temple singers to drive away evil forces The likely model for the queen was Emelie "Millie" Jones, the sister of Mary Emma Jones, who is known to have had blonde hair.
Berenice II, the Princess of Cyrene, was the wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes and the first queen of the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt. According to legend she sacrificed her hair as a votive offering to Aphrodite in order to insure a safe return for her husband from his expedition to Syria during the Third Syrian War. Her hair mysteriously disappeared from the temple and the astronomer Conon of Samos interpreted this phenomenon as the hair having been carried to the heavens by Aphrodite and placed amongst the stars. The name of the constellation Coma Berenices [Berenice's hair] memorializes this event.
Bibliography
Berenice, Queen of Egypt. Art UK. Web. 18 July 2025.
Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 200, cat.2.A.102, 190-91.
Created 18 July 2025