The Sphinx by Herbert Cole, fl. 1900

The Sphinx

Herbert Cole, fl. 1900

Ink, pencil and watercolour on paper laid on board

8 x 7 7/8 inches, 20.3 x 19 centimetres

Inscribed "To J and G. Church From Herbert Cole" on the reverse

Herbert Cole was an engraver and illustrator who exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898 and 1900.

Another work by the same artist: The Critic

Herbert Cole, like many other painters, poets, and illustrators of the 1890s and afterwards, presents an attractive nude woman as the destroying sphinx, thus reducing an ancient symbol of the mysterious universe into a simple femme fatale. In contrast, for Carlyle and the work of painters, such as Ingres, the sphinx has its classical meaning, symbolizing the mysterious universe and the riddle about human nature with which it conmronts us. If we do not solve the riddle correctly as did Oedipus — the figure of ancient Greek legend and not Freud's — we cannot neither understand human nature nor survive. In the work of Cole and others like von Stuck, however,the sphinx represents devouring woman and the dangers of sexuality. — George P. Landow

References

Nahum, Peter, and Sally Burgess. Pre-Raphaelite-Symbolist-Visionary. London: Peter Nahum at Leicester Galleries. Catalogue number 57.

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Last modified 20 October 2004