To the Unknown Land

Although his name is not commonly known, Edmund Blair Leighton's most famous works are amongst the most widely recognized paintings of the period.  It was ancient the Egyptians whose dead were always carried across a lake to illustrate the embarkation of the parting soul for the voyage over the silent sea of Eternity, to a new existence in the Unknown Land. In their adaptation of the idea, the Greeks added further details. But modern thought views the mystery and meaning of death differently from the old thoughts, and Leighton's picture expresses the change. This moving artwork by E. Leighton shows an angel transporting a dead child in a boat to The Unknown Land.  The mother in the foreground tragically weeps for the passing of her child. A new element of tender compassionate sympathy has been brought into the fable that transforms and ennobles it. Gone are the venerable elements of horror and despair.