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Florizel and Perdita
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Albert Pinkham Ryder painted several images based on plays by William Shakespeare. His favorite play was The Winter’s Tale, and this small image shows the characters Prince Florizel and the shepherd girl Perdita, who he was forbidden to marry. They discovered that Perdita was actually the banished daughter of a king, however, and the lovers were reunited. Ryder never married and constantly mourned the absence of love in his life. (Broun, Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1989) He may have been comparing himself to Prince Florizel and hoping that he, too, would fall in love with a “princess.”
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineFlorizel and Perdita. by 1887. Albert Pinkham Ryder, born New Bedford, MA 1847-died New York City 1917. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly. CC0.
