Who painted the 1896 artwork commonly titled Pandora, showing the mythological figure?

John William Waterhouse painted the 1896 artwork commonly titled Pandora.

Waterhouse’s Pandora is an oil painting from 1896 that depicts the mythological woman leaning toward the ornate container. It belongs to the artist’s mature period, when he frequently painted subjects from classical mythology, literature, and legend. The image is now one of the best-known Victorian interpretations of Pandora.

The painting is often discussed alongside Waterhouse’s better-known works such as The Lady of Shalott and Hylas and the Nymphs. Its dark setting and concentrated pose emphasize the moment before or during the vessel’s opening rather than showing the whole mythic sequence.

Waterhouse’s version also demonstrates how the translation “box” shaped visual culture. The object is represented as a decorative, box-like container, not as the large pithos described in Hesiod’s Greek text. Art history and classical mythology therefore meet in this famous adaptation.