The Daughter of Herodias [Salome] . 1881. Oil on canvas. 80 x 31 inches (203 x 79 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Bonhams, New York.
Coke exhibited this work at the Royal Academy in 1881, no. 87, the first work he exhibited there. He had previously shown a watercolour version of this same composition at the Dudley Gallery in 1879, no. 422. Salome was the daughter of Herodias and the stepdaughter of King Herod Antipas. The story of Salome and St. John the Baptist, which comes from the Gospels of Mark 6, 14–29, and Matthew, 14, 1–12, is well known. Briefly, St. John the Baptist had been imprisoned by Herod for condemning his marriage to Herodias, which had violated Mosaic Law because Herodias was the divorced wife of his half brother Herod Philip. Herod was reluctant to have John executed, however, because he was popular with the Jewish people who believed him to be a prophet. After Salome had danced before Herod and his guests at a festival to celebrate his birthday, the king was very pleased and promised to give her whatever she asked for. Heriodias, incensed by John's denunciation of her marriage, prompted her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod was therefore forced to unwillingly accede to this request. Salome took the platter with John's head and presented it to her mother. Although Salome was not mentioned by name in the Bible, she was named by Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities.
Coke's painting of Salome portrays her as a statuesque mature bare-breasted woman holding the head of John the Baptist on a platter in her left arm. This is a very unusual depiction of this notorious femme fatale because she was normally portrayed in Old Master paintings as a nubile young woman. When Coke's watercolour version of this subject was exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1879 a critic of The Spectator, quite rightly, felt the model chosen to represent Salome was inappropriate to the subject portrayed:
No. 422, Herodias's Daughter, by A. Sacheverel Coke. This is a difficult work to write about, if only because it is work of a style hardly ever seen in water colours. It resembles more a study for a large oil picture or fresco, then a picture itself. The work seems hardly carried far enough for a finished drawing. It represents a large, half-naked, young woman of a somewhat elephantine type of beauty, standing against a background of dark trees and white marble. The dish which she is carrying, in which is the head of St. John, is half covered by the position of her arm. On the whole, this is a powerful picture, and one which shows that the artist possesses more ability than is actually shown in the work itself. No one could have done this who could not have done much better. Our readers will probably agree with us that the picture is somewhat misnamed. We picture a daughter of Herodias as an incarnation of graceful, seductive suppleness and beauty, whereas this lady is of the majestic proportions of a Juno. [340-41]
The oil version of the painting was not widely reviewed when it was shown at the Royal Academy. A critic for The Illustrated London News merely mentioned that the work showed promise: "The Daughter of Herodias (87) by A. Sacheverel-Coke [sic] is also a quasi decorative work of considerable promise" (498).
The figure of Salome once again appears to have been influenced by Frederic Leighton, who portrayed powerful women in paintings such as Jezebel and Ahab of c.1863, Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon of c.1869, and Clymnestra from the Battlements of Argos of c.1874. The subject of Coke's painting might have been inspired by Old Master examples or possibly by the poem "Daughter of Herodias" by Arthur O'Shaughnessy contained in his volume An Epic of Women and Other Poems first published in 1870.
Related Material
- Salome
- The Biblical Story of Salome
- Beheading Women: Salome and Saint John the Baptist
- Salome in the Fin de Siècle imagination
Bibliography
"Art. The Dudley Gallery." The Spectator LII (15 March 1879): 340-41.
Nineteenth Century European Paintings. New York: Bonhams (2 May 2018): lot 64.
"Royal Academy Exhibition." The Illustrated London News LXXVIII (21 May 1881): 498.
"Salome: stepdaughter of Herod Antipas." Britannica. Web. 16 June 2025.
Created 16 June 2025