Leda and the Swan, c.1846–1883

The print

Printed by theprintspace, the East London fine-art lab trusted by artists, galleries and museums. Each print is made to order on Hahnemühle German Etching, a heavyweight 310gsm mould-made paper with a slightly warm white tone and a soft, mottled texture, using archival pigment inks made to last for generations.

German Etching suits this drawing especially well. Its warm white and soft surface sit naturally with the brown paper of the original, so the dry strokes of charcoal, gouache and pastel keep their hand-drawn texture.

Sizes available:

59×42cm, 23×17″, fine art print, open edition
84×59cm, 33×23″, fine art print, open edition
100×70cm, 39×28″, fine art print, open edition

Safe, tracked delivery guaranteed worldwide, with sustainable packaging.

The story

In Greek myth, Zeus took the form of a swan to seduce Leda, queen of Sparta. Michelangelo painted the scene in the late 1520s, more sensually than almost anyone before him. His picture is lost, but copies made from a cartoon taken to France in the 1530s kept his version alive for centuries, and this drawing is one of its descendants.

Adolphe Yvon (1817–1893) trained under Paul Delaroche and made his name in the Second Empire with enormous battle paintings for the French state. In 1856 he sailed to the Crimea to sketch for The Capture of the Malakoff Tower, a canvas about six metres by nine. From 1863 to 1883 he was the leading drawing teacher at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The sheet is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.