(Illustration for Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám) The Cup of Love
1883-1884
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase and gift from Elizabeth W. Henderson in memory of her husband Francis Tracy Henderson
Accession Number
1978.108.24
Tags
Art Historical Context
Elihu Vedder created this evocative drawing, *The Cup of Love*, between 1883 and 1884 as an illustration for Edward FitzGerald’s celebrated translation of the *Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám*. The work belongs to a larger series in which Vedder interpreted the twelfth-century Persian poem’s meditations on life’s fleeting pleasures. Rendered in the intimate medium of drawing, the piece captures a nude figure group that embodies the poem’s recurring themes of love, transience, and human experience. Vedder’s composition invites viewers to contemplate the symbolic “cup” as both a vessel of joy and a re...
About the Artist
Elihu Vedder · 1836–1923
Elihu Vedder was born on February 26, 1836, in New York City to Dr. Elihu Vedder Sr., a dentist, and his cousin Elizabeth Vedder. As a young boy, his family relocated to Cuba for his father's ventures, an experience that sparked his artistic aspirations amid the Caribbean landscapes. He later divided his time between a boarding school and his maternal grandfather Alexander Vedder's home in Schenec...