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Lot Essay
As David Bindman commented in the 1979 Royal Academy catalogue, op.cit., no. 152, this drawing is almost unique in Flaxman's oeuvre in that it is a watercolour; only one other watercolour by Flaxman is known, the other example is in the collection of the Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd.
The identification of the drawing as related to Swedenborg, paragraph no. 1272, has been made as a result of an inscription on the reverse of a preliminary drawing which, like the present drawing, was in the possession of Christopher Powney, and which belongs to a group of drawings illustrating the Arcana Coelestia. Despite the inscription Bindman points out that the passage illustrated is in fact from Swedenburg paragraph 1271, in which Swedenborg tells of deceitful spirits who 'supposed that they had all power to do what they pleased, and that they could take away life from everyone: but to expose the vanity of this imagination, they were thrust down again to their infernal abodes by a little child, at whose presence they began so to totter and tremble that they could not help expressing their anguish by cries.'
Later in his life Flaxman was a member of the Society for Printing and Publishing the Writings of the Hon. Emmanuel Swedenburg, but although he belonged to a group devoted to his beliefs, he never formally joined the Swedenborgians.
The present drawing and lot 113A by Romney, were formerly in the collection of Gabrielle Keiller. Keiller, ne Style, was born in 1908, in North Berwick, and first came to prominence as a golfing champion. The funding for her collection came from the sale of her share in a family cattle ranch in Texas, while the inspiration came from a meeting in Venice in 1960 with Peggy Guggenheim. The greater part of her collection was left as a bequest to the Scottish National Gallery of Art. Keiller formed this part of her collection in the 1950s but sold most of them in the 1960s when she began to develop her interest in Dada and Surrealist art. At the time of Keiller's death, the Flaxman and Romney were the only drawings in the collection executed before the beginning of the 20th century.
The identification of the drawing as related to Swedenborg, paragraph no. 1272, has been made as a result of an inscription on the reverse of a preliminary drawing which, like the present drawing, was in the possession of Christopher Powney, and which belongs to a group of drawings illustrating the Arcana Coelestia. Despite the inscription Bindman points out that the passage illustrated is in fact from Swedenburg paragraph 1271, in which Swedenborg tells of deceitful spirits who 'supposed that they had all power to do what they pleased, and that they could take away life from everyone: but to expose the vanity of this imagination, they were thrust down again to their infernal abodes by a little child, at whose presence they began so to totter and tremble that they could not help expressing their anguish by cries.'
Later in his life Flaxman was a member of the Society for Printing and Publishing the Writings of the Hon. Emmanuel Swedenburg, but although he belonged to a group devoted to his beliefs, he never formally joined the Swedenborgians.
The present drawing and lot 113A by Romney, were formerly in the collection of Gabrielle Keiller. Keiller, ne Style, was born in 1908, in North Berwick, and first came to prominence as a golfing champion. The funding for her collection came from the sale of her share in a family cattle ranch in Texas, while the inspiration came from a meeting in Venice in 1960 with Peggy Guggenheim. The greater part of her collection was left as a bequest to the Scottish National Gallery of Art. Keiller formed this part of her collection in the 1950s but sold most of them in the 1960s when she began to develop her interest in Dada and Surrealist art. At the time of Keiller's death, the Flaxman and Romney were the only drawings in the collection executed before the beginning of the 20th century.