Henry Kettle* (18th Century)

An Anamorphic Vanitas : A Man with Faun's Ears holding a Jug and a Man smoking a clay Pipe pointing to an Hourglass, with a guttering Candle, an Easel, Books, and two Skulls

Details
Henry Kettle* (18th Century)
An Anamorphic Vanitas : A Man with Faun's Ears holding a Jug and a Man smoking a clay Pipe pointing to an Hourglass, with a guttering Candle, an Easel, Books, and two Skulls
signed 'Hen.y Kettle Pinx.t' [in mirror writing]
oil on panel
14 1/8 x 28 5/8in. (35.9 x 72.7cm.)

Lot Essay

The artist, about whom almost nothing is known, was the father of the portrait painter, Tilly Kettle. He exhibited at the Society of Artists of Great Britain in 1772 'A Cilindrical picture: one side a conversation, the other a sleeping Venus'.