Image: adapted from 1923 exhibition photograph.

• Title(s): The Cumaen Sibyl, guarding the Secret of the Tomb (1923 exhibition catalogue); Sibyl guarding the Tomb of the Oracle (The Vote, 23 May 1924); Sibyl guarding the Tomb of the Oracle (Royal Academy – Summer Exhibition catalogue).
• Description: image above adapted from 1923 exhibition photograph.
• Media: ?
• Dimensions: canvas c. 60 x 30 cm (estimated from 1923 photo).
• Date/signature/other text: ?
• History:
  • 1923 Jul – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, Paintings by Mrs. Swynnerton, A.R.A.
  • 1924 – Exhibited Royal Academy – Summer Exhibition, no. “465 Sibyl guarding the secret of the Tomb” (catalogue).
• Location: ?

“34. The Cumaen Sibyl, guarding the Secret of the Tomb. / Painted at Rome” (1923 exhibition catalogue).

“WOMEN ARTISTS AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY … “Sibyl guarding the Tomb of the Oracle,” mystic and curiously indefinate, with an unfinished appearance” (The Vote, 23 May 1924).

“The Cumaean Sibyl (Latin: Sibylla Cumana) was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony near Naples, Italy.” (Wikipedia, 22 Nov 2025.) However, myths regarding her are complex and varied, so the precise reference the artist intended to represent is unclear.

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Page last updated 29 Sep 2025.