Ariadne2.0009

George Frederick Watts, 1817-1904, "Ariadne in Naxos," 1880-1885, oil on canvas, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, no. 2095.

Note this picture's similarity to 1869 Ariadne (=Ariadne2.0004_Watts) exhibited at the Watts Gallery's centeniary exhibition.

Watts engaged this same subject with much different perspectives across four decades — in 1863, 1875 (=1.0183), 1896 (=1.0184), and at other points in his career. This work is clearly related to the more elaborate Guildhall version 1875 (=1.0183) which Watts himself called his "most complete picture". Still, both this and the Guildhall Ariadne prove the artist's deep fondness for the 5th-century Phidian sculpture represented by the Elgin Marbles. Watts' reclining Ariadne famously strikes the same pose as one of the female figures in the Parthenon's Birth of Athena pedimental sculpture group.