Herbert James Draper

Purchased from the Glasgow Institute of Fine Art exhibition of 1900 by Duncan Sinclair Smith of St. Clair Villas, Paisley;
Possibly, his daughter Miss Catherine Smith of Kilmacolm;
Christie's, London, 11 July 2004, lot 161;
Private collection

Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, 1900, no. 374

Glasgow Evening Post, 24 March 1900;
Simon Toll, Herbert Draper, A Life Study, 2003, p.186, illustrated plate 59

STRUCTURE This picture is unlined and in good condition with rich colouring throughout and good texture. There are areas of fine craquelure, particularly in the darkest tones. However the paint surface appears to be stable throughout. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are small areas of flecked retouching in the darkest tones of the waves and a small area of retouching on the sails. These retouchings have been well executed. FRAME This picture is contained in a moulded composite frame.
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The Wrath of the Sea God was the second of a series of classical nautical paintings painted by Draper around the turn of the century. In 1894 he had achieved his first major public success with a painting entitled The Sea Maiden (Christie's, 16 June 2010, lot 168), a dramatic scene set on board a fishing-boat as a sea-nymph is hauled aboard in the nets. This picture established Draper's reputation as a painter of narratives beside the sea, and more specifically on board ships. Among the other notable examples of this theme were the Celtic Tristram and Yseult (formerly Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and destroyed during the Blitz) painted in 1901 and the famous classical extravaganzas The Golden Fleece of 1904 (Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford) and Ulysses and the Sirens of 1909 (first version, Ferens Art Gallery in Hull; second version, Leeds City Art Gallery).

The present picture illustrates an episode from Ovid's Odyssey as the ship commanded by Odysseus and his men on their return to Ithaca from the Trojan wars, incurs the anger of Poseidon following Odysseus' slaying of Poseidon's son, the cyclops Polyphemus. The men struggle against the foaming waters, grappling with the steering oar at the stern and attempting to lower the sails to prevent the ship from capsizing.

When The Wrath of the Sea God was exhibited in Glasgow in 1900, it was described as 'an artistic triumph' (unidentified newspaper cutting from Draper's scrapbook) and the artist was congratulated for using thick impasto to model the figures and the shields on the bulwark of the ship. It attracted the attention of Duncan Sinclair Smith, a wealthy manufacturer of shawls in Paisley who bought the painting soon after the exhibition closed.