title | Helen of Troy

artist | Dante Gabriel Rossetti

style | Pre-Raphaelite

date | 1863

Art History at a Glance

The subject for the painting Helen of Troy was taken from Classical mythology. According to legend, Helen was considered the most beautiful mortal woman. Although she was married to Menelaus, the cunning Paris (with the assistance of the goddess Aphrodite) convinced Helen to leave her husband and run away with him to Troy. This act of betrayal eventually resulted in the Greeks declaring war on the Trojans. And so the legendary Trojan War, which was immortalized in the Iliad of Homer, began because Helen foolishly left her husband for another man. In this painting, artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts the famous face that "launched a thousand ships". This face was modeled by blonde 'stunner' Fanny Cornforth. It is also worth noting that Rossetti included the following quote from Aeschylus about Helen of Troy on the back of this painting: "Destroyer of ships, destroyer of men, destroyer of cities".