Calypso's Isle

Herbert James Draper 1864 - 1920

Summary

A mythological scene, where a naked woman is seated on a rocky outcrop on the coast, looking out across a calm, dark sea. She sits on red and white drapery, with her back to the viewer, her dark hair pinned up on her head and decorated with red braiding. She holds a mirror in her right hand, level with her shoulder, and a coral necklace in her other hand, which she picks up from a group of trinkets at her side. The rocky coastline is visible in the background.

Display Label

Calypso’s Isle exhibited 1897 James Herbert Draper 1864 - 1920 Oil on canvas In Greek myth Calypso ruled over the island of Ortygia, where she captured Odysseus after he was shipwrecked. She offered him immortality provided he agreed to stay, but Zeus, the supreme ruler of the gods, freed him. Draper depicts Calypso as a predator. Holding a mirror, and with her reluctant guest gone, she preens herself in preparation for the next shipwreck and potential victim. London-born Draper exhibited at the Royal Academy. He specialised in powerful, heroic compositions, typically featuring female nudes in carefully researched, nautical settings, E.N.Galloway bequest 1919.25