Poynter's Andromeda

Sir Edward John Poynter's Andromeda (1869) is one of the finest and most honest female nudes ever painted. It comes up for auction in Sotheby's London Sale of Victorian and Edwardian Art next Tuesday 17 May, estimated value £300,000 to £500,000. This is an incredible bargain when you think of the millions paid for modern-art tripe with no artistic merit. Victorian art is still badly undervalued. Its major themes are considered old hat: mythology, beauty, veiled eroticism and the damsel in distress. (Andromeda is chained to a rock as sacrifice to a sea monster.) Poynter was President of the Royal Academy in the days when RAs were great artists, not junk peddlers. This painting is such an important work it should be in the National Gallery. It certainly shouldn't be allowed an export licence! CLICK for my tweaked graphic which shows greater detail, such as the rusty chains. And CLICK for Poynter's sublime Cave of the Storm Nymphs (1903), which is in a private collection!