Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

In a letter dated 10 July 1880 Sandys wrote to his agent Charles Augustus Howell about two unfinished drawings that he was working on of Faustine and Antigone saying that 'they are the two best drawings I have ever done...' (MS letter, John Rylands University Library, Manchester).

Antigone was the daughter of the incestuous marriage between King Oedipus of Thebes and his mother Jocasta and was imprisoned in a tower by her uncle King Creon, but liberated by her cousin Haemon. Her tragic story was dramatised by the ancient dramatists Sophocles and Euripides.