OREADS.

Photos: Jonathan Russell (taken while on display during Painting Light and Hope exhibition, Manchester Art Gallery, 2018-2019).

  • Title(s): Oreads (Royal Academy, 1907; plaque on frame; this web site); The Oreades (1923 exhibition catalogue); The Oreads (Annie Swynnerton in letter to Flora Lion, 1907).
  • Description: A group of five female figures in different postures, all nude, in a circular frame. They appear standing on a watery surface with a leaping fish on one side and rainbow sliver in a part-cloudy sky on one side.
  • Media: oil on canvas (Tate).
  • Dimensions: “support: 1778 x 1778 mm” (Tate); “H 177.8 x W 177.8 cm” (artuk.org).
  • Signature/date/other text: “Annie L Swynnerton / 1891”; plaque on base of frame: “3619. OREADS.MRS. A. L. SWYNNERTON/ . ( ) . PRESENTED BY / MR. J. S. SARGENT, R.A., 1922”.
  • History:
    • 1891 – Signed and dated.
    • 1907 – Exhibited Royal Academy (exhibition catalogue).
    • 1910 – Exhibited Manchester Academy Autumn Exhibition (reference?).
    • 1922 – “Presented [to the Tate] by John Singer Sargent” (Tate).
    • 1923 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery 1923, “Painted at Rome” (exhibition catalogue).
    • 2018-2019 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
    • 2022 – Exhibited Tate Britain, Nov 2022, “Spotlights: Annie Swynnerton”.
  • Location: Tate.

Titled ‘Oreads’ on this web site, after the title on the plaque on the painting and the 1907 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue.

The work is titled ‘The Oreades’ in the Manchester Art Gallery 1923 catalogue, although the work is usually titles ‘Oreads’ or ‘The Oreads’. The plaque on the painting’s frame has simply “Oreads”. In a letter to the artist Flora Lion (1878-1958) Annie calls the work ‘The “Oreads”‘.

The ‘oreads’ were deities from Greek mythology, usually inhabiting remote mountains and ravines, but also associated with lowland areas or even the sea, and who joined in wild hunts or guided travellers through difficult terrain. Some were immortal, other lived only for as long at the tree they inhabited lived.

March 14th 1922

Dear Flora Lion

I must write to you a line of thanks now that I have a picture at the Tate. I am sure it was entirely due to you that Mr. Aitken came to see me with the result that he selected a group of work to be sent to the Gallery.

When Mr. Sargent heard of this he sent his picture The “Oreads” which the board naturally preferred to the rest. He, it seems, has presented the picture to the gallery [as I] have a letter to that effect from Mr. Aitken.

I do hope that all is well with you & that you have plenty of work these bad times.

I shall be very glad to be with you again. I miss my artist friends very much here in Rome, quite exiled, & always your most generous appreciation of my work is very dear to me.

Now with love & with very kind regards to Mr. Armato believe me affectionately yours

Annie L. Swynnerton

The painting is visible in an undated painting by Ronald Gray of the New English Art Club (auctioned by Cheffins, 20 Mar 2024, lot 349, sold: £8,000), the address given as 76 Fulham Road.

’76 Fulham Road’ was a complex of purpose-built studios for artists, with occupants including Annie Louisa Swynnerton, John Singer Sargent, Elizabeth Southerden Thompson, Charles Edward Hallé, Edward John Poynter, Alfred Gilbert, Ronald Grey and others. There is an article on the location HERE.

The picture hanging in the wall to the left of Oreads is ‘My Mother’, 1908, by Ronald Gray, which is in the Tate. There is another unidentified work on the mantlepiece.

Page last updated 10 May 2025.