HERBERT JAMES DRAPER (BRITISH, 1864-1920)

In 1901 Draper exhibited several pictures at the Royal Academy, the star of which was the hugely ambitious Tristram and Yseult. Priced at £1,000 at the Academy, it was Draper's most expensive painting to date. It departed from his usual style in its elaborate setting and medieval costumes, but his preparatory practice reflected that more usually seen in his nude and classically draped scenes. The present sheet is a full-length nude study of the model Mary Best for the figure of Yseult, the pose exactly reflecting that in the final picture. Draper frequently made nude sketches for the individual figures in compositions in order to fully understand the anatomy and pose, before working on broader composition studies. For Tristram and Yseult, at least twenty nude and clothed figure studies and composition studies are known.

Draper's painting of Tristram and Yseult was popularised through engravings made by Frost and Reed, and was then bought by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Sadly it was lost in the bombing of Liverpool in 1941.