The Wilfrid de Glehn estate is represented by
David Messum Fine Art Ltd.
London
England
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Study for ‘The Enchanted Isle’, c. 1928
The point that de Glehn is perhaps driving at in this unusual allegory, is that the stories of classical antiquity, so venerated within the academy, had been written by poets who were artists like themselves. They had also originally been inspired by the observation of landscape and the human form, but for the ancient poets, observation of the natural world had inspired great works of the imagination. The painting can be seen, therefore, as something of a manifesto; a statement of artistic belief and as symbolizing the creative tension at the heart of de Glehn’s art—the balance he sought to maintain throughout his career between observation and inner vision.
Three Bathers
The Rainbow, 1938
