The Danaïdes

In the Greek story, Danaus had 50 daughters, and when they were forced to marry the 50 sons of his brother Aegyptus, he ordered each of them to kill her husband on the wedding night. All but one obeyed. In the underworld they were sentenced to carry water, forever, to a vessel that never fills. Sargent painted them between 1922 and 1925 for the grand staircase of the Museum of Fine Arts, the second stage of his decoration there, and the canvas went up over the door that then led into the museum's library. A punishment of work that never ends was placed above the way in for anyone coming to study. The panel is more than six metres wide. The museum had commissioned the staircase series from him in 1921, for $40,000, and this canvas was installed in 1925.