Focus on this artwork and analyze the Exhibitions and provenance.
The first time the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts was at the summer exhibition in 1884. After viewing it at the exhibition an unnamed French critic reported that he could not recall "a more original effect of light and colour, used in the broad, true, and ideal treatment of lovely forms." The following year, in 1885, it was exhibited in Berlin. It was again displayed at the Royal Academy in the winter of 1897, a memorial exhibition of his works as Leighton had died on 25 January 1896.  It was included in the Guildhall Art Gallery's annual loan exhibition in 1897. Sir W.E. Cuthbert Quilter owned the painting until it was sold among his art collection in July 1909. It changed ownership a number of times in the UK, with owners including Leopold Albu, and Pamela Cavendish (mother of Hugh Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Furness), before being purchased at auction by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, in February 1976.  It returned to at the Royal Academy from mid-February to April 1996, in an exhibition devoted to the work of Leighton. The Art Gallery of New South Wales also purchased a colour study of the painting, measuring 23.5 by 46.5 centimetres (9.3 by 18.3 in), in 1986.
Royal Academy of Arts Sir W.E. Cuthbert Quilter Australia Art Gallery of New South Wales Leopold Albu Guildhall Art Gallery Hugh Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Furness summer exhibition