Odysseus in Despair on the Island of Calypso

This bold drawing interprets a mythological subject in the purest academic tradition. Odysseus is depicted in the classic pose of a wounded warrior derived from antique Greek sculpture, the Wounded Gaul now at the Musée du Louvre. It illustrates a passage from Book V of The Odyssey: Odysseus, having spent 7 years on the island of Calypso, longs to return home to Ithaca, and spends his days on the rocks of the seashore, weeping, crying aloud for his despair, and always looking upon the sea. Homeric subjects are quite rare in Vincent's oeuvre, but this drawing--executed around 1800--echoes the subject matter, linear style, and muscular bodies in works by members of Vincent's circle in Rome: the Raging Achilles on the Shore by Johan Tobias Sergel, the Sitting Male Nude by Nicolai Abildgaard, and numerous works by Henri Fuseli, among others. The sheet thus adds to the Morgan's strong collection of works by artists active in late-eighteenth century Rome, and it shows a very different side of Vincent's work from our other sheet by him, an early Group of Elegantly Dressed Gentlemen, and a pair of caricatures.