Shop art print and framed art Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse
Subjects : History, Portrait
Keywords : Painting, Pre-Raphaelite, egyptian, headdress, portrait
(Ref : 135552) © De Agostini Picture Library / Bridgeman Images
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Cleopatra OF John William Waterhouse
The artwork
Cleopatra
Cleopatra", i.e. Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, commissioned for an exhibition designed by the weekly magazine The Graphic with twenty-one paintings of Shakespeare's heroines in mind, was painted by John William Waterhouse in 1888.
For its time, it differed from most Victorian works in that instead of showing a modest, unassuming woman, it actually showed a 'femme fatale' resting on a chair protected by a leopard skin, challenging the viewer of the work with a gaze that was both seductive and venomous. At the time of the initial exhibition, it was accompanied by a quotation from Shakespeare: "Where is my serpent of the old Nile? That's what he calls me". In 1889, the original paintings were auctioned at Christie's and Cleopatra was sold to a London dealer for ninety guineas. It was then lost (Trippi said it was "untraceable"), before being discovered in a cabin in the Colorado Rockies. More than a century later, in June 2003, it was auctioned again by Christie's for an estimated £300,000 to £500,000, but the reserve was not [...]
This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the pre-raphaelism style.
« Cleopatra » is kept at Private Collection.
Find the full description of Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse on Wikipedia.