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Notes
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Oedipus stands before the Sphinx, who challenges him to solve a riddle before he can enter the city of Thebes, just visible in the distance. The skull and bones at the bottom of the picture show the fate of those who have previously failed the test. According to legend, Oedipus answers correctly and he becomes King of Thebes. Ingres had painted a larger version of this picture in 1808, which is now in the Louvre, Paris. He later enlarged the canvas and reworked the composition, and it is likely that the National Gallery’s painting is a developed sketch for these revisions. Oedipus and the Sphinx clearly shows Ingres’s attraction to the classical world, whether as a source for stories or as a source for a deliberately classical artistic style.
Title
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Date
about 1826
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 17.5 x W 13.7 cm
Accession number
NG3290
Acquisition method
Bought, 1918
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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