Sappho and Alcaeus

Title: Sappho and Alcaeus
Rights: The Walters Art Museum, Maryland. Public Domain.
Creator: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912)
Date: 1881
Description: Sappho, the front-most figure on the left, sits in an outdoor theater with other women, watching the poet Alcaeus, the only figure on the right, attentively as he appears to be playing a kithara. Sappho leans on a lectern, atop which rests a laurel crown on a cushion. Alcaeus sits in a large chair with a back that allows him to lean backward as he plays the kithara, sitting below his chair on the right is a small, curved horn instrument. A companion stands to Sappho's left with her arm resting on Sappho's back. Three other women sit in the second/last row of seating watching with them. Greek names are carved into the base of the seating, meant to be that of Sappho's companions/sorority. Behind the tiered seating of the theater, a tall, wide tree peeks out. Behind both the theater and the tree, the sea and sky can be seen.
Format: Oil on panel. 26 x 48 1/16 in.
Publisher: The Walters Art Museum.
Contributor: Shenai Beyale
Identifier: The Walters Art Museum. 37.159.
Subject: Sappho; Alcaeus; Lesbos; Mytilene; poetry; contemporaries; companions; kithara; Greece; painting; art
Source: Jpg file. The Walters Art Museum. 10/28/2025. https://art.thewalters.org/object/37.159/