The Sirens and Ulysses is a largeoil painting on canvas by the English artistWilliam Etty, first exhibited in 1837. It depicts the scene fromHomer'sOdyssey in whichUlysses (Odysseus) resists the bewitching song of thesirens by having his ship's crew tie him up, while they are ordered to block their own ears to prevent themselves from hearing the song.
While traditionally the sirens had been depicted as human–animalchimeras, Etty portrayed them as naked young women, on an island strewn with corpses in varying states of decay. The painting divided opinion at the time of its first exhibition, with some critics greatly admiring it while others derided it as tasteless and unpleasant. Possibly owing to its unusually large size, 442.5 by 297 cm (14 ft 6.2 in by 9 ft 8.9 in), the work initially failed to sell, and was bought later that year at a bargain price by theManchester merchant Daniel Grant. Grant died shortly afterwards, and his brother donatedThe Sirens and Ulysses to theRoyal Manchester Institution.
The Sirens and Ulysses was painted using an experimental technique, which caused it to begin to deteriorate as soon as it was complete. It was shown in a major London exhibition of Etty's work in 1849 and at the 1857Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester, but was then considered in too poor a condition for continued public display and was placed in the gallery's archives. Restoration began on the work in 2003, and in 2010 the painting went on display in theManchester Art Gallery, over 150 years after being consigned to storage.
York-bornWilliam Etty (1787–1849) had originally been an apprentice printer inHull,[1] but on completing his apprenticeship at the age of 18 moved toLondon to become an artist. Strongly influenced by the works ofTitian andRubens, he became famous for painting nude figures in biblical, literary and mythological settings.[2] While many of his peers greatly admired him and elected him a fullRoyal Academician in 1828,[3] others condemned the content of his work as indecent.[2]
Throughout his early career Etty was highly regarded by the wealthy lawyer Thomas Myers, who had been educated atEton College and thus had a good knowledge of classical mythology. From 1832 onwards Myers regularly wrote to Etty to suggest potential subjects for paintings.[4] Myers was convinced that there was a significant market for very large paintings, and encouraged Etty to make such works.[5][A] In 1834, he suggested the theme ofUlysses ("Odysseus" in the original Greek) encountering thesirens, a scene from theOdyssey in which a ship's crew sails past the island home of the sirens. The sirens were famous for the beauty of their singing, which would lure sailors to their deaths. Ulysses wanted to hear their song, so had his crew lash him to the ship's mast under strict orders not to untie him, after which they blocked their ears until they were safely out of range of the island.[6]
The topic of Ulysses encountering the sirens was well suited to Etty's taste; as he wrote at the time, "My aim in all my great pictures has been to paint some great moral on the heart ... the importance of resisting SENSUAL DELIGHTS".[7] In his depiction of the scene, he probably worked fromAlexander Pope's translation, "Their song is death, and makes destruction please. / Unblest the man whom music wins to stay / Nigh the curs'd shore, and listen to the lay ... In verdant meads they sport, and wide around / Lie human bones that whiten all the ground. / The ground polluted floats with human gore / And human carnage taints the dreadful shore."[6]
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The Sirens and Ulysses shows three sirens singing on an island, surrounded by the rotting corpses of dead sailors. Ulysses is visible in the background tied to the mast of his ship, while dark clouds rise in the background.[8]
Ulysses appears larger than his fellow sailors, while the sirens hold out their arms in traditional dramatic poses. The three sirens are very similar in appearance, and Etty's biographer Leonard Robinson believes it likely that Etty painted the same model in three different poses.[9] Robinson considers their classical poses to be the result of Etty's lifelong attendance at the academy's Life Classes, where models were always in traditional poses,[9] while former curator ofYork Art Gallery Richard Green considers their pose a tribute to theNereids in Rubens'sThe Disembarkation at Marseilles, a work Etty is known to have admired and of which he made a copy in 1823.[10]
The physical appearance of the sirens is not described in theOdyssey, and the traditional Greek representation of them was as bird-lion or bird-humanchimeras.[6] Etty rationalised the fully human appearance of his sirens by explaining that their forms became fully human once out of the sea,[9] an approach followed by a number of later painters of the subject.[11]
Etty put a great deal of effort into the painting, including visiting a mortuary to sketch the models for the dead and decaying bodies on the sirens' island.[7] His use of real corpses became publicly known, causing complaints from some critics.[9] Although he visitedBrighton in 1836 to make studies of the sea in connection with the painting, Etty had little experience of landscape and seascape painting, and the painting of the sea and clouds is rudimentary in comparison with the rest of the work.[12]
The painting was Etty's largest work to that time, measuring 442.5 by 297 cm (14 ft 6.2 in by 9 ft 8.9 in).[8] The work was completed in 1837 and exhibited at theRoyal Academy of Arts later that year, and hung in the Academy's new building atTrafalgar Square (now theNational Gallery).[13] The work, and Etty's methods in making it, divided opinion:The Gentleman's Magazine considered it "by far the finest [painting] that Mr. Etty has ever painted ... it is a historical work of the first class, and abounds with beauties of all kinds",[14] whileThe Spectator described it as "a disgusting combination of voluptuousness and loathsome putridity—glowing in colour and wonderful in execution, but conceived in the worst possible taste".[9]
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Possibly because of its size,The Sirens and Ulysses failed to sell at the 1837Summer Exhibition.[15] In October 1837 wealthyManchester cotton merchant Daniel Grant, an admirer of Etty who had already commissionedVenus and her Doves from him,[15] met Etty atHeaton Park races and offered to buyThe Sirens and Ulysses and Etty's smallerSamson Betrayed by Delilah unseen for a total of £200.[16] Etty was hoping for £400 for the two paintings, but on being told by Grant that his firm had lost £100,000 that year offered a price of £300 for the pair. Grant counter-offered £250 (about £29,000 in today's terms),[17] which Etty refused. On leaving at the end of the evening, Grant suddenly said, "Will you take the money?", startling Etty, who in his surprise agreed.[16] Grant died shortly afterwards,[16] leaving the painting to his brother William, who in turn gave it to theRoyal Manchester Institution in 1839.[7]
Etty considered the painting to be his best work, insisting that it form the centrepiece of his 1849Royal Society of Arts solo exhibition.[7] The Royal Manchester Institution was concerned that the painting would be damaged if moved, refusing to allow it to be used in the exhibition until Etty, and a number of influential friends, visited Manchester to beg them to release it.[18] Etty died later that year, and his work enjoyed a brief boom in popularity.[19] Interest in him declined over time, and by the end of the 19th century, the cost of all his paintings had fallen below their original prices.[19] As it was rarely exhibited,The Sirens and Ulysses had little influence on later artists, although it is credited as an influence onFrederic Leighton's 1858The Fisherman and the Syren.[20]
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Ulysses and the Sirens is one of those great efforts of my Art achieved in the vigour of my life, I can never make again.
— William Etty[7]
Etty had used experimental techniques to makeThe Sirens and Ulysses, using a strong glue as a paint stabiliser which caused the paint to dry hard and brittle, and to flake off once dry, a problem made worse by the painting's large size causing it to flex whenever it was moved.[21][22] From the moment it was complete it began to deteriorate.[23] After it was exhibited at the 1857Art Treasures Exhibition it was considered in too poor a condition for public display, and it was placed in long-term storage in the archives of the Royal Manchester Institution and its successor, theManchester Art Gallery.[7] In the mid-20th century there were a number of unsuccessful attempts to repairThe Sirens and Ulysses, but an attempt to clean the painting unintentionally damaged the paint further.[21]
In 2003, Manchester Art Gallery staff determined that ifconservation work were not undertaken, the painting would soon be beyond repair. TheEsmée Fairbairn Foundation andAXA Art Insurance provided funding for the restoration.[23] Areplacement canvas to which the painting had been attached in the 1930s was removed.[21] Following this, a mixture ofisinglass adhesive and chalk was used to restore the surface of the painting, and the paint added during the earlier attempted restoration was removed.[21][22] A new double layer of canvas was added to the back of the painting, and the three layers were glued together.[21]
In 2006 the repaired painting was moved back from the conservation studios to the Manchester Art Gallery. The Gallery Nine section of the MAG was converted into a temporary studio, open to the public to watch the final retouching work until it was completed in 2010,[22][23] andThe Sirens and Ulysses currently hangs in Gallery Three.[22]
