Ernest Normand - Pandora

1899

This famous picture is the left wing of a triptych, The Legend of Pandora. She is shown about to open the jar of tribulations. The centre panal showing the result also survives.

Ernest Norman (1857 - 1923) was born in London, educated in Germany but returned to England in 1876. Though he first worked in his Father's office, he attended evening classes in art at St. Martin's and spent his spare time drawing the antique in the British Museum. In 1880, at the age of 23, he decided to become an artist and entered the Royal Academy Schools for three years before going to Paris in the studios of Constant and Lefebvre. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1881 where he continued to exhibit till 1904. In 1884 he married the painter Henrietta Rae.