Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse

Penelope and the Suitors, 1911-1912 by John William Waterhouse, visually described by Shona Elliott, lead curator for Collections Access. Penelope and the Suitors was created by John William Waterhouse in 1911 and 1912 and it is displayed in Gallery 1 as part of the permanent collection in Aberdeen Art Gallery. The work is an oil painting on canvas and it hangs in a room which explores the theme of collecting art. As the city's art gallery we have been collecting art for over 130 years and Penelope and the Suitors was purchased in 1912 for the residents of Aberdeen to enjoy. It is a large painting. In its frame the work is over two metres wide and one and a half metres tall. The picture shows a scene based on Homer's accounts of Odysseus, also known as Ulysses. Odysseus was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca, a Greek island. In Homer's epic poem Odyssey, which is thought to have been written in the 8th century BC, we learn about the trials and tribulations of Odysseus. I'll tell you some of the story before describing the image to enhance understanding of the painted scene. Odysseus fought in the war against the Romans and he never returned to his wife Penelope until many years later. His long absence led people to believe he was dead and several men tried to win the affection of Penelope during this time. However, she never gave up hope and she came up with plans to stall remarrying. It is one of these schemes that is depicted in our oil painting. Penelope said that she would remarry once she'd completed creating a shroud for her father-in-law. However, the suitors weren't aware that she was actually unravelling her work at night time in order to delay completion. She managed to stall them for three years with this trick. In our painting, Penelope is in a room in Ithaca and it is daytime. She is positioned in the centre of this painting, working at her loom. There are two maids on the left side of the artwork and they are facing Penelope with the loom in between her and them. Four male suitors are on the right of the scene trying to get the attention of this queen. Penelope is in profile wearing a long red dress and sitting at her loom. It is an action shot. We're seeing a moment in time where she has the thread in her mouth and the attached shuttle in her raised left hand. One maid is sitting and the other is standing and they both help Penelope with her weaving. Two walls of the room are visible. The back wall contains a large window which occupies nearly half of the top third of this painting. There are white buildings, lush green trees and a bright blue sky beyond this window but the view is partly obstructed by the loom and Penelope's head. The side wall of the is on your right. The lower half of that wall is decorated in a frieze showing several figures engaged in a battle scene and the upper half comprises pillars with open spaces in between. The four suitors are leaning through those open areas all trying to win Penelope's affection. One man is playing music on a lyre, another is offering pink flowers and another holds up jewellery. The fourth is gazing dreamily at Penelope. The efforts are in vain however. Penelope has her back to the suitors and she's focused on weaving. Part of a white building is visible beyond the head of the suitor holding the floral bouquet. John William Waterhouse has employed a rich and diverse palette of colours. In the foreground alone we see the sitting maid's purple dress, a basket containing white orange and blue wool, a wooden stand with white and green yarn wrapped around it and a rug covering most of the floor with a blue green pink and white design. There's also a wooden stool in the bottom right of the painting with a gold two-handled chalice and blue cloth on top. The wall frieze is behind it with a rich red background surrounding the figures. Although the painting depicts a working space the colours create a sense of opulence and shades of gold appear in several places. As well as the chalice there are two golden sculpted lioness heads projecting from corners on the stool and a suitor presents a golden jewellery box. Gold threads are sewn in sashes around the waist of Penelope and the sitting maid and a gold coloured ornament secures Penelope's dark brown hair in a bun. The window frame and some pillar parts are golden and we see a gilt lantern above the loom. There's an extraordinary amount of detail in this painting. There are several patterns in the materials such as colourful shapes in the rug and a repeated pattern in the predominantly blue shroud that Penelope is making which is visible on the left side of the loom. The dress of the sitting maid contains a frequently repeated oval shaped design. As well as patterns galore the painting shows numerous soft textures, yarn on and nearby the loom, loose flowing dresses with gathered areas forming ripples in the fabric, luxurious looking draped cloths, the beautiful rug and rumpled clothing on suitors. I would now like to tell you a bit more about the artist. John William Waterhouse was born in Rome in 1849 but the family relocated to London in the 1850s. His English parents were both artists and John followed this tradition studying at the Royal Academy of Art from 1870 where he focused on sculpture and painting. His works were initially classical but his style increasingly became influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood formed in 1848 and their artwork moved away from genre painting, a style which was popular at that time and depicted everyday life. They were interested in portraying literary subjects and religious themes, exploring morals and creating real naturalistic settings for stories with attention to detail. The group was inspired by the realistic capturing of nature seen in Italian works prior to Raphael. John Ruskin's promotion of nature was also an influence. The leading figures were John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriele Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. Their artworks often used bold bright colours and many featured women painted to portray the artist's vision of beauty. Paintings showing women with long hair were common and the hair was often red and sometimes curly. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's active life came to an end in the mid-1850s and Waterhouse's painting of Penelope and the Suitors was created significantly later, yet the influence can be clearly seen in his paintings including this one. The attention to detail, mythological subject matter, the focus on beautiful women in soft clothing and the rich tonal palette all show an interest in the Pre-Raphaelite style. This painting was just one of many Waterhouse produced that explored classical mythology and Arthurian legend. Some of his best-known works are his paintings of the Lady of Shalott and Ophelia. He painted both characters multiple times and his 1888 painting entitled The Lady of Shalott, showing her sitting in a boat just prior to her death, is a popular work that is cared for by Tate Britain. In 1927 we acquired another Waterhouse work representing a classical mythology and it is called The Denaids. The artist painted the work in 1906 and it was purchased for the city at a sale of works belonging to the Aberdeen collector Sir James Murray. So what makes Penelope and the Suitors so interesting? Aberdeen Art Gallery commissioned this painting directly from the artist and it was a controversial purchase. Waterhouse handed it over to us in time for an agreed deadline of exhibiting the work at the end of 1911 but he had struggled with completing the painting. Not all viewers of the work were pleased with it and they sent letters to the local papers criticizing the painting for historical accuracy and high cost of purchase amongst other complaints. Interestingly this criticism brought about a benefit as the following extract from the 9th of January 1912 Press and Journal paper explains. The fact that strong adverse criticism has been published regarding the proposal to purchase the picture has aroused additional interest in the Many have entered the gallery to look at the picture and to know the points of criticism. In the same article a defence is made saying again it is pointed out that the picture is as yet unfinished and that it is too fresh from the artist's studio to be appraised at its true value. The paint was scarcely dry in some parts when it arrived in Aberdeen at the close of the year regarding technique it is claimed to be admirable. Waterhouse went on to make changes in advance of showing the work at the 1912 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition removing the back of Penelope's chair for example. It has been observed that the commission was quite surprising given that the style of this work wasn't considered to be modern art in the early 20th century. The work is a far cry from the cubist expressionist and futurist paintings of figures that were produced around the time. Penelope and the suitors has however proved to be very popular over the decades and as well as being a regular on display in Aberdeen it has travelled to various places in the world to be shown in temporary museum exhibitions including ones in Japan, the Netherlands and Montreal, Canada. So how did the story end? Odysseus did successfully return to Ithaca after a 10-year voyage and 20-year absence from home. He had quite a battle to regain the throne having to eliminate the unscrupulous suitors who had taken over the palace. After winning a shooting challenge Odysseus revealed his identity and killed the suitors. The king and queen were reunited at last. He went on to successfully battle the families of the suitors and finally there was peace in the kingdom. This brings us to the end of the visual description of Penelope and the suitors by John William Waterhouse.