Catalogue entry

Olive and Porch of the Maidens
Catalogue no. 1120
1961
Athens, Greece
Pencil on paper
9 x 11 1/2 in. (22.9 x 29.2 cm)
Signed, inscribed, dated lower left: "E W Dickinson / Athens / 1961 / Nov. 5"
Inscribed lower right: "the fallen & eaten olive"
Inscribed, numbered on bottom: "and night / the day of the gt. [great] rain"
Inscribed on cornice: "The mistake in < [angle]"
Private Collection
Photo: Geoffrey Clements
Notes
Drawn in Athens, Greece, on the Acropolis, November 5 (journal). ED note from back of a photograph: "(View towards top of the Parthenon from back of the Porch of the Maidens) Athens the day of the night of the great tragic downpour! rising wind - everything blowing about weighted everything. ate the last olive to fall." To HDB, 6 November 1961: "I commenced drawing yesterday. I drew the olive tree of the Erectheum . . . The sacred olive tree is there, one live tree - the wind was high - and an olive dropped, I quickly picked it up & ate it. The most famous olive tree on earth." Journal, November 5 1961 "mis-read the 2nd angle which crowded me. 3 olives dropped from the tree in the high wind; I pocketed 'em When finished I packed up, turned around & there was Pat looking very attractive. . . "I made a bad mistake in an angle (the 2nd left) having read it right but did it wrong. It crowded right through the whole effort. No more !"
Provenance
Private Collection
Private Collection
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Citation: Dickinson Baldwin, Helen. "Olive and Porch of the Maidens, 1961 (Catalogue no. 1120)." In The Edwin Dickinson Catalogue Raisonné. www.edwindickinson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1120 (accessed on July 23, 2026).