Existing comment:
Elihu Vedder
American, 1836-1923
The Cup of Death, 1885
So when the Angel of the darker Drink
At last shall find you by the river-brink,
And, offering his Cup, invite your Soul
Forth to your Lips to quaff -- you shall not shrink.
The above passage from the forty-ninth quatrain of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam inspired this haunting image by Elihu Vedder of ultimate acceptance. A permanent expatriate best known for his allegorical and literary subjects, the artist had opened a studio in Rome during the late 1860s and quickly established a reputation as a distinctive painter, sculptor, muralist, illustrator, and author.
The painting derives from Vedder's 1884 masterwork -- fifty-six illustrations for a deluxe edition of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the 12th-century Persian text. The painter found his ideal subject in this work, which combines meditative poetry and monumental design, and considered it his major artist achievement. Vedder's illustrations to the translated text, which speculates on the mysteries of existence and death, struck a chord with a broad American public traumatized by the Civil War, shaken by the scientific theories of Darwin, and further challenged by foreign immigration, massive industrialization, and growing social discord. Vedder painted two oil versions of The Cup of Death; the original (with its more somber color scheme) is now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. |