George Romney, R.A. (1734-1802)

Satan and Death

Details

George Romney, R.A. (1734-1802)
Satan and Death
pencil
5 x 9 in. (14 x 23.4 cm.); and a study of a crowned male figure on the reverse.

Provenance

Christopher Powney.
Gabrielle Keiller collection.

Literature

E. Cowling, Surrealism and After, The Gabrielle Keiller Collection, Edinburgh, 1997, p.122, no. 155, illustrated.

Exhibited

Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Surrealism and After: The Gabrielle Keiller Collection, 5 July-9 November 1997, no. 155, illustrated.

Lot Essay

This drawing has been identified as Satan and Death, an illustration to Milton's Paradise Lost, Book II:

'So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape/So speaking, and so threatening, grew tenfold/More dreadful and deform. On the other side,/Incensed with indignation, Satan stood/Unterrified and like a comet burned'.

Towards the end of his life Romney executed a number of drawings inspired by Milton subjects. It has been suggested that Romney was particularly taken with Milton as a result of the 1794 publication by Boydel and Nichol of an illustrated edition of the Poetical Works of John Milton.

For a note on the provenance of this drawing please see lot 124.

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