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Phryne at the Feast of Poseidon at Eleusis
Phryne
also: Фрина на празднике Посейдона в Элевзине, нагая Фрина Семирадского, Semiradsky's naked Phryne
Large-scale academic painting (1889) by Henryk Siemiradzki depicting the courtesan Phryne unveiling herself before the Eleusinian festival crowd; exhibited in Petersburg in early 1889, where its nudity made it a public sensation and talking point of the season -- the painting Chekhov jokingly pairs with his own "Ivanov" as the two rival "heroes of the day."
Reading notes
- To M. V. Kiseleva, 17 February 1889. Moscow. §5 In Petersburg there are now two heroes of the day: Semiradsky's naked Phryne, and I, clothed.
Henryk Siemiradzki's large canvas "Phryne at the Feast of Poseidon at Eleusis", exhibited in Petersburg in this same season, caused a public sensation for its nudity; Chekhov jokingly pairs it with the concurrent success of his own "Ivanov" as the two rival talked-about spectacles of the day -- the painter's naked subject against the playwright's clothed one. First appearance of Siemiradzki/Semiradsky as a contemporary-events reference in the letters, rather than the earlier passing mention in \emph{Passazhir 1-go klassa}.