Ariadne2.0011_Rejlander

Oscar Gustav Rejlander, 1813-1875, "Ariadne", albumen silver print from glass negative, 1857, Washington, National Gallery of Art, Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005, accession number 2005.100.1164.

Rejlander's pioneering work with artistic photography found him working upstream against challenging social circumstances in Victorian England. At a time when extremely conservative mores caused public audiences to scorn artists who would even associate with women who pose as nude subjects, Rejlander was crafting an artistic association with the great master painters. Some critics see in this figure's pose a citation of Titian's Venus and Adonis, and they observe that Rejlander is correcting Titian — "to shows that the painter's rendering of the human form was not true to nature." (NatGal Highlights)

Absent, or perhaps not conspicuous in the image are references to the mythological Ariadne. As a figure of Ariadne, as the title suggests, the subject must be longing for the return of Theseus or biding time until the arrival of Dionysos.