Galatea
Jesse Waugh
Galatea
2013
Oil on canvas
"The image reminds of me the intents of the pre-Raphaelite… perhaps its emphasis on simplicity and purity."
- Liliana Leopardi, Art Historian
Galatea gazes lovingly upon Pygmalion as she completes her metamorphosis. A torrential rain cascades down while a Morpho butterfly hovers above announcing the event.
Inspired by Louis Gauffier's depiction of Galatea at the Manchester Art Gallery, and modelled after a famous portrait of the silent-movie actress Lillian Gish, Jesse Waugh's Galatea is the first fully Pulchrist work of painting, embodying all of the tenets of Pulchrism, the art movement advocating Beauty in the arts.