On the Temple Steps

Sir Edward J. Poynter, PRA RWS

1890

Oil on canvas

Brighton Art Gallery and Museum

Accession no. FA000036

The heat, the wistful, elfin langour of the waiting girl in her flimsy transparent drapery, the luscious summer fruit, the pink roses in full bloom, the distant cerulean blue ... like so many other paintings by Poynter, this one brings to mind his own words to prospective art students: "the true object of art is to create a world: not to imitate what is constantly before our eyes (114). The frame with its ionic capitals is part of this creation. Poynter has been seen as almost as "inventive" with his frames as another of the classicising academicians of the period, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. [Click on image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Photograph (by kind permission of the gallery) and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.

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