Cleopatra

Cleopatra

Cleopatra is portrayed as femme fatale, lounging on a leopard skin her sultry gaze defying the viewer. A voluptuous Victorian masterpiece by John William Waterhouse, which had disappeared for more than a hundred years.

Public domain

Unknown

In 1889, the original paintings were auctioned at Christie's and Cleopatra sold to a London dealer for ninety guineas. It then was lost (Trippi indicated that it was "untraced"), only to be discovered in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. More than a century later, in June 2003, it was to have auctioned by Christie's for an estimated £300,000 to £500,000 but did not meet the reserve.

56.9 x 65.3 cm

This art work was painted In 1887 for The Graphic, an illustrated London weekly, which commissioned an exhibit of twenty-one paintings of Shakespeare's heroines.

1887