Signed with monogram and dated l.l.: JES/1923

Pencil and white chalk on buff paper, 38.5 by 26 cm (15 ¼ by 10 ¼ ins)

The legend of Ariadne in Naxos was a favourite mythological subject of Southall who painted it on a number of occasions: an initial painting in 1902, a tempera picture on linen from 1925 (now in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (fig.1 below)) and a related version in oil in the same year. The present study relates to the Birmingham painting, which hung above the fireplace in the artist’s own dining room until his wife’s death in 1947. The present study differs slightly from the final painting, particularly in the pose of Ariadne’s left hand, dress and head-dress, but nevertheless sets up her distinctive final pose with her low hanging right arm.