Tithonus: A White-Haired Shadow Roaming like a Dream
Mary Smith, Artist
This is one of the
watercolours
in our collection.
It was made in
Wellington, Wellington Region, New Zealand
in 1923.
See full details
Object Detail
Measurements
Image: 253 x 253mm
Support: 365 x 308mm
Original Matt: 375 x 313mm
Paper mat: 453 x 378mm
Matt (framed): 457 x 558mm
Frame: 611 x 510 x 25
Support: 365 x 308mm
Original Matt: 375 x 313mm
Paper mat: 453 x 378mm
Matt (framed): 457 x 558mm
Frame: 611 x 510 x 25
Media
watercolour on paper
[paint?] on paper
[paint?] on paper
Description
Watercolour painting of an elderly man in white. The figure holds a stick in one hand and gestures towards the ground with the other. He stands in a barren landscape with two trees, one tall and strong, the other withered.
The painting is based on a poem titled Tithonus by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1859). Based on Greek mythology, the poem is about Tithonus, a moral who fell in love with Eos (Aurora). Eos asks Zeus to grant Tithonus eternal life, which he does. But Eos forgot to ask for eternal youth, and as a result Tithonus grows ever older and more frail, but cannot die.
The title of the work is adapted from a line in the first verse of the poem, which reads:
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.
The painting is based on a poem titled Tithonus by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1859). Based on Greek mythology, the poem is about Tithonus, a moral who fell in love with Eos (Aurora). Eos asks Zeus to grant Tithonus eternal life, which he does. But Eos forgot to ask for eternal youth, and as a result Tithonus grows ever older and more frail, but cannot die.
The title of the work is adapted from a line in the first verse of the poem, which reads:
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Gift of Lilian Smith.
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
19 Aug 1983
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Accession Number:
1988/27/127