''Medea'' is an 1868

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

on canvas by the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

painter

Frederick Sandys Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (born Antonio Frederic Augustus Sands; 1 May 1829 – 25 June 1904), usually known as Frederick Sandys, was a British painter, illustrator, and draughtsman, associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He was also assoc ...

. The painting was submitted to the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

for display in the Summer Exhibition of 1868 but it was rejected – most likely for internal politics and jealousies rather than artistic reasons. The picture was accepted the following year and reviewed very favourably by ''The Times'', which commented pointedly on its previous failure to win a place. ''Medea'' was modelled on Keomi Gray, a

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

woman whom Sandys had met in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, England, and taken back to London to sit for many of his paintings. According to a contemporary critic it shows the enchantress

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...

"...in the act of incantation, the baleful light of her chafing-dish playing in the folds of her robe, and making the pale cheeks look paler, and the ashy lips more ashy, and kindling the array of foul ingredients and witch's properties that surround her tripod - foul toads and strange roots, and images of strange gods, and quaint shells filled with evil compounds." In 1911 the picture was sent to Italy for the

international exhibition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

at Rome for the celebration of the jubilee of the Kingdom of Italy. The participating countries included Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, England, Russia, Serbia, Spain, USA, Hungary and Italy. The British Pavilion was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. In 1912 it taken over by the British School at Rome, which is still based there.

References

1868 paintings Paintings depicting Greek myths Collections of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Witches in art Ships in art Paintings by Frederick Sandys Frogs in art Works about Medea Paintings of fictional women {{19C-painting-stub