Henry Ryland - Oleander

In this work Ryland has prepared the artist's board with a hard gesso surface before drawing his subject finely in pencil. It is one of Ryland's rare paintings in tempera. The Titian-haired beauty is influenced, of course, from those 'Stunners' of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, or perhaps more directly the images ofFrederick Sandys. The aesthetic background, again in common with the works of Sandys, stems initially from the designs of William Morris, but the flower itself, an oleander, pays homage to the highly popular Neoclassical movement. Henry Ryland had trained and studied under Benjamin Constant and Boulanger, Lefebvre and Carmon in Paris, but it was Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's paintings which captured his imagination.