Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses is perhaps Gallery Oldham’s most popular artwork and it is the one we receive the most queries about. To help answer some of those burning questions here is a bit of information about John William Waterhouse’s famous painting.

Completed in 1891, this painting didn’t enter the collection at Gallery Oldham until 1952 when it was loaned and then donated by Marjory Lees. Her father, Charles Lees, bought the work directly from Waterhouse shortly after it was created. At 148 centimetres in height and 92 centimetres wide it is a good-sized canvas to paint the classical story of Circe as found in The Odyssey.

In this tale Circe is a sorcerer who wants to keep Odysseus (or Ulysses as he’s also known) and his crew under her control. To do this she invites them to a banquet where she offers them a cup which holds poison that will make them all under her spell. In Waterhouse’s paining we see the moment she offers the cup to Ulysses. However, his crewmates have already been turned into pigs who we can see in this painting reflected in the mirror behind Circe. One of those pigs is at her feet to the right of the canvas. We see the moment in which Ulysses is making decision whether to take the poisoned chalice.

Waterhouse embraced the style of the Pre-Raphaelites, an artistic movement founded in 1848 in London. In Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses he references many of the hallmarks of this movement such as classical subject matter, a return to a style before the Renaissance master Raphael, and a strict adherence the natural world. There were writers and poets in the movement as well as visual artists. Waterhouse himself used many literary sources for subjects of his work, mostly referencing Greek myths and Arthurian legend. He did paint some more contemporary scenes too but is perhaps most well-known for paintings that have literary references.

Circe is not just admired amongst Oldhamers but has global appeal. The painting has been exhibited over thirty times in galleries as far away as Japan. Most recently Circe was displayed in Hamburg and is currently being kept in secure storage at Gallery Oldham. Despite its popularity, its simply not possible to have the painting on continuous exhibition in the gallery.

Waterhouse’s painting is not the only artwork in Gallery Oldham’s collection to portray Circe. Ceramicist Stephen Dixon created Saucy Circe between 1991 and 1992, shortly after the first Gulf War, using the mythical story to challenge the seductiveness of war and its promise of adventure: ‘Join the Army and see the world!’ This artwork not only references the classical story and Waterhouse’s painting, but also the British political caricatures and cartoons of the 18th and 19th centuries. There are many reasons people make enquiries about Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses by John William Waterhouse, ranging from practical to art historical. The sheer volume of them shows that this painting, and perhaps the story of the sorcerer herself, has found resonance amongst a wide variety of people including researchers, the casual art fan, and artists. Please do get in touch if you have any further questions about our most queried painting.