Lot 111: Arthur Foord Hughes (British, 1856-1934)

The finding of Leander
signed 'A. Foord Hughes' l.r.
watercolour
66 x 104 cm. (26 x 41 in.)

The New Gallery, London, Summer Exhibition, 1899.

Leander was a youth of Abydos, a town on the Asian side of the strait which separates Asia and Europe. On the opposite shore, in the town of Sestos, lived Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite. Leander was in love with Hero and every night swam across the straight, to meet his mistress, guided by a torch which she reared upon a tower for the purpose. One night a storm arose and Leander was drowned; the waves carring him to the European shore, where Hero was waiting for him. The present work depicts her, cradling her lover in her arms, upon discovering his body. Hero then in her grief and despair, threw herself from the tower and perished in the sea.