The Questioner of the Sphinx

Elihu Vedder first studied art in his native New York but traveled to Europe in 1856, enhancing his education in both Italy and France and beginning a life-long fascination with European art and literature. He eventually established his studio in Rome and lived as an expatriate in Italy for over sixty years. A poet and writer as well as a painter, Vedder had been fascinated with ancient myths and fantastic tales from the very beginning of his career. He developed a particularly strong following in Boston, which since the early part of the century had cultivated a taste for Romantic, literary paintings.