Sappho

Title: Sappho
Rights: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Public Domain.
Creator: Henry Wolf (1852-1916), copy after Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911)
Date: 1881
Description: An illustration of Sappho sitting casually in a windowsill with a lute. She is wearing clothing not indicative of her true time period. She wears a dress that appears European and most relevant to the 18th or 19th centuries, with a cape, skirt, frilly neck-hugging collar, and a hat covering her hair that is seemingly pulled up and back. She sits inside of a house in some corner of a room. The borders around the illustration on this page have aesthetic designs filling up empty spaces. Below the art is old English writing. On the left, it describes the scene “Upon Sapho / Sweetly plaie- / inge and / sweetly singing.” with a poem written in smaller print to its right.
Format: Photomechanical wood engraving on paper. 7 5⁄8 x 4 1⁄2 in.
Language: English
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution.
Contributor: Shenai Beyale
Identifier: Smithsonian Institution. 1973.130.5.
Subject: Sappho; poet; illustration; wood engraving; paper; literature; lute
Source: Jpg file. Smithsonian Institution. 11/5/2025. https://www.si.edu/object/sappho:saam_1973.130.5