The Death of Lucretia

Details

GAVIN HAMILTON (1723-1798)
The Death of Lucretia
oil on canvas
82 7/8 x 107 1/4 in. (210.5 x 272.5 cm.)

Provenance

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

Literature

R. Rosenblum, 'Gavin Hamilton's Brutus and its Aftermath', Burlington Magazine, CIII, 1961, pp. 8-16.
D. Irwin, 'Gavin Hamilton: Archaeologist, Painter and Dealer' The Art Bulletin, 44, No. 2, June 1962, p. 96, fig. 14.
D. Irwin, English Neo-Classical Art, London, 1966, p. 11, no. 16, illustrated.
R. Rosenblum, Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art, Princeton, 1967, pp. 69, 162, fig. 70.
H. Honour, Neo-classicism, London, 1968, p. 147, fig. 77.
R. Rosenblum, 'A Source for David's Horatii', Burlington Magazine, CXII, 1970, pp. 269-273, discusses the composition in general.
J.L. Williams, Gavin Hamilton 1723-1798, Edinburgh, 1994, pp. 11-12.
E.P. Bowron and J.J. Rishel (ed.), Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, Philadelphia and London, 2000, under no. 231, pp. 381-2.
D. Dawson and P. Morère (ed.), Scotland and France in the Enlightenment, Lewisburg and London, 2004, pp. 129, 131.

Exhibited

London, Kenwood House, British Artists in Rome, 1700-1800, 1974, no. 72.

Engraved

D. Cunego, 1768, as 'Brutus'.

Special notice

Specified lots (sold and unsold) marked with a filled square not collected from Christie’s, 8 King Street, London SW1Y 6QT by 5.00pm on the day of the sale will, at our option, be removed to Crozier Park Royal (details below). Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. If the lot is transferred to Crozier Park Royal, it will be available for collection on the third business day after the sale. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Crozier Park Royal. All collections from Crozier Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s, 8 King Street, it will be available for collection on any working day (not weekends) from 9.00am to 5.00pm

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Gavin Hamilton spent the great majority of his life in Italy, primarily in Rome, where he became one of the leading forces in the emergence of neo-classicism in European painting at the time. Visits to Herculaneum and the recently discovered archaeological site of Pompeii are likely to have had a profound effect on his subsequent career painting large, impressive scenes from Classical antiquity on commission for a range of major patrons.
R. Rosenblum (1961, op. cit., p. 11) believed the present work to have been commissioned by James Hope-Johnstone (1741-1816), later 3rd Earl of Hopetoun, whilst Bowron and Rishel (op. cit., pp. 381-2) published the painting in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, as commissioned by James's brother, Charles Hope, Lord Granton (1763-1851). Bowron and Rishel link the present work to one of two other versions painted by Hamilton, commented on in the artist's studio by Antonio Canova in 1780: 'Vidi un quadro rappresentante la morte di Lucrezia benissimo inventato e di bei caratteri secondo l'uso antico' (Rosenblum, 1961, op. cit., p.11).

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