Footnotes

Provenance
Matthew Ridley Corbet, and thence to his widow Mrs Edith Corbet of 54 Circus Road, London.
Sold by her executors, Christie's, London, 6 December 1920, lot 154 (as Reflections); bought 'Sampson' (William Sampson of The British Galleries).
Mr H.R. Barnes of St Petrochs, LLandudno.
His sale, Christie's, London, 18 November 1921, lot 79 (as Reflections); to Sampson.
E.A. Pritchard, by whom sold Sotheby's, 19 November 1969, lot 154 (as The Broken Sandal).
The collection of Joseph M. Van Horn.
Laura Bondi Carchia, acquired directly from the above in 1983.
Thence by descent.

Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1874, no. 172.

Edward Poynter's Rhodope was painted during the most fertile phase of the artist's career and is a superb example of his aestheticism of the 1870s. He had already found fame as a painter, with his Israel and Egypt (Guildhall Art Gallery, Corporation of London), Faithful unto Death (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) and The Catapult (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) which had presented grand subjects of ancient history in the manner of the French Neo-Classicists whose work he had studied when a student in Paris in the 1850s. By the mid-1870s his art became more decorative. By this time he had completed his fresco for the church of St Stephen's in Dulwich and the extensive tiled decoration of the Grill Room at the South Kensington Museum. Lord Wharncliffe had commissioned him to paint four large canvases for the billiard room of his country house near Sheffield, two of which had been completed, Perseus and Andromeda and The Dragon of Wantley and the third had been begun Atalanta's Race. These projects had given Poynter's work a strong decorative aesthetic, which is also evident in his only contribution to the Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1874, Rhodope.

The story of Rhodope (or Rhodopis) was a precursor of the Cinderella tale. The Greek writer Strabo told it as; 'They [the Egyptians] tell the fabulous story that, when she was bathing, an eagle snatched one of her sandals from her maid and carried it to Memphis; and while the king was administering justice in the open air, the eagle, when it arrived above his head, flung the sandal into his lap; and the king, stirred both by the beautiful shape of the sandal and by the strangeness of the occurrence, sent men in all directions into the country in quest of the woman who wore the sandal; and when she was found in the city of Naucratis, she was brought up to Memphis, and became the wife of the king.' Poynter probably discovered her tale in Morris' Earthly Paradise which was a source of inspiration for several pictures at this time, including Atalanta's Race (destroyed) and Psyche's Awakening (whereabouts unknown). Poynter had first depicted Rhodopis on one of his Grill Room tiles and a decorated casket designed in collaboration with William Burgess in the 1850s. In both these panels Poynter depicted Rhodopis as the Queen of Psammetichus, the architect of the pyramids reclining in languid contemplation of the designs.

The composition of Rhodope was based upon The Sandal (private collection) one of the three small panels painted in 1871 and 1872 entitled The Three Summer Days. These panels of girls in verdant gardens were set into a carved walnut and pear wood drawing-room cabinet designed by the architect Edward Tarver who had shared Poynter first studio in the 1860s at Great Russell Street. The cabinet was made by Gillow and Co. for the country house of Cristobal de Murrieta, Wadhurst Hall in Sussex. In 1874, when Poynter painted Rhodope he was also working on the preparatory work for The Festival (Art Institute of Chicago), one of a pair of canvases painted for the Earl of Wharncliffe. The Festival depicts two girls dressed in togas hanging garlands – it has a similar decorative effect to Rhodope. A drawing of two female heads dated 3 February 1874, now in the Los Angeles County Museum and Art Gallery, relates to the uppermost figure in The Festival and Rhodope.

Rhodope was well received by the art critics when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy, described by The Athenaeum as being '... of high quality and great merit... a charmingly designed figure, with beautifully treated draperies, and shows more playfulness of design than the painter usually indulges. The garden background is very pretty' (Athenaeum, no. 2427, 2 May 1874 p. 602). The critic for the Art Journal also commended the '...considerable taste and skill in the drawing, but with a scheme of colour that to us at least is unsympathetic and inharmonious' (Art Journal, 1874 p. 164). The Birmingham Daily Post recognized it as being '... rather in the style of Leighton' (2 May 1874, p. 5). The Morning Post described the narrative of Rhodope: 'It represents the light hearted young lady who subsequently married Charaxes - and who, let us hope, settled down, and made him an excellent wife - completing her toilet after emerging from the bath. She is fully draped, and is just giving the finishing touch by adjusting her sandal. This picture is little more than a sketch, but it's full of grace and elegance' (18 May 1874, p. 4). The Graphic admired the '...high finish and most graceful design... The lady is seated on a bench beside a bath, adjusting fastenings of her blue sandal. The draperies are admirably treated, and the little work manifests refined taste and thoroughly artistic qualities' (The Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, 30 May 1874, p. 16).

Rhodope was owned by the artist Mathew Ridley Corbet, one of the Macchiaioli group of painters, who had studied in Rome and was a close friend of Leighton. He married the artist Edith Murch, whose Sleeping Girl of 1882 is similar to Rhodope. Rhodope remained with her until her death in 1920. It last appeared at auction in 1969 and its reappearance now is a significant rediscovery; it has never been reproduced before.