Hesperia

In Greek mythology, the nymph Hesperia was one of the Hesperides whose task was to look after the garden of the gods and with the aid of a dragon guard a tree that produced golden apples. This watercolour is a small-scale reworking of an oil painting that Frank Dicksee exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887. The artist, who was taught by Lord Leighton and Sir John Everett Millais, achieved considerable official success and was best known for his romantic historicising pictures that continued the figurative tradition of the Pre-Raphaelites well into the Edwardian era.