Attr. James Barry R.A. 1741-1806. Irish School Late 18th.Century.
Apollo And Artemis. Pencil, pen and brown ink wash drawing on laid paper, fleur de lys watermark. 47.5 by 26.7 cms. Further pencil study verso. Dateable to Circa.1770.
Stamped with collectors marks T.H. (Lugt 2432) and Eye Cypher (Lugt 2793) lower left.
Provenance:
Thomas Hudson 1701-1779 (Lugt 2432). In his day Hudson was the leading portrait painter in London. & Nathaniel Hone R.A. 1718-1784 (Lugt 2793). Hone was an Irish portraitist, miniature painter and founding member of the Royal Academy. Previously the drawing was with The Manning Galleries Ltd, London and Edgar Seaton Hyde, Cheshire (acquired from the above in the 1960s).
In the present work Apollo rides through the sky silhouetted against the sun opposite his twin sister Artemis, her head profiled against the moon and in the company of a group of chaste nymphs. Sagittarius in the form of a Centaur is to Apollo's right. The subject derives from the top section of the etching by Pietro Testa (1611-1650), of the Allegory of Autumn. Not shown in the present work, but present in the lower part of Testa's etching, a drunken Silenus with the god Pan leads a lustful parade of satyrs and centaurs to honour the return of Bacchus from his travels through India.
Previously attributed to both John Hamilton Mortimer and Alexander Runciman, I am grateful to Sir Timothy Clifford who has suggested the more credible attribution to James Barry.
Barry was an Irish painter from Cork, best remembered for his six-part series of paintings entitled The Progress of Human Culture in the Great Room of the Royal Society of Arts in London. Because of his determination to create art according to his own principles rather than those of his patrons and his well documented belligerent nature he had limited financial success in his own lifetime. In 1782 he was elected Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, later falling out with his fellow Academicians, he became the first of only two Academicians ever to be expelled from the Institution. One of the earliest Romantic painters working in Britain, He is notable for his profound influence on the work of William Blake.