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Triptych: Embarkation for Cythera

Artist: McCulloch, Ian, RSA · b. 1935

Triptych: Embarkation for Cythera

Note from Ian McCulloch when he submitted the triptych as his Diploma Work "Although the painting has been composed as a triptych, it is possible for…

Note from Ian McCulloch when he submitted the triptych as his Diploma Work "Although the painting has been composed as a triptych, it is possible for the individual/ panels to be shown separately. However, it should not be displayed as a diptych. For display as a triptych, the sequence of the paintings is indicated on the back of the/ paintings. The interval between the panles should be 1.5" (this note is in Ian McCulloch's file). The painting pays hommage to Watteau's 'Embarkation for the Isle of Cythera', identified in Greek mythology as the island of love and associated with Venus. In letter to Collections Assistant of 2006-11-14 in McCulloch's file he explains his interest in Watteau and in this painting "I first came upon reproductions of Watteau's 'Embarkation for Cythera' as a / schoolboy in the late 1940s. At that time I suppose I responded to the delicacy and romance of the/ painting without any understanding of its implications. In recent times I have revisited the subject/ in a consciously ironic way, hence the incorporation of mundane doemstic fabrics with/ metamorphic figures. The reality of the Island of Love, the painting implies, could be rather/ different from that implied by its eighteenth - century predecessor." In 1990 at the RSA Annual Exhibition Ian McCulloch exhibited 'Embarkation for Cythera 2'.

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