Lot Essay
This is one of five drawings of the Senses 'which Mr. West made for the Princess Royal, to make an Etching from'. Two others of the series are known, Sound, also signed and dated 1784 (H. Shickman Gallery, 1968) and Smell (sold Sotheby's 11 Sept. 1975, lot 55). They were etched by Charlotte Augusta Matilda, (1766-1828), Queen of Wurtemberg and eldest daughter of George III. An Album of prints assembled by Alexander Bennett in the first half of the nineteenth century contains a set of these etchings (British Museum 189 * b. 23).
Other finished drawings (rather than sketches for paintings) of the period are Three Sisters shelling Peas (four versions three dated 1783, one catalogued in H. von Erffa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, 1985, p. 422 no. 455, repr.), Belisarius brought to his Family (signed and dated 1784; Philadelphia Museum of Art; repr. Erffra and Staley, op. cit., p. 186), and Agrippina with her Children (see Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; see R.S. Kraemer, Drawings by Benjamin West and his son Raphael Lamar WEst, exhibition catalogue, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, p. 19, repr. fig. 15, as of the 1780s)
Other finished drawings (rather than sketches for paintings) of the period are Three Sisters shelling Peas (four versions three dated 1783, one catalogued in H. von Erffa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, 1985, p. 422 no. 455, repr.), Belisarius brought to his Family (signed and dated 1784; Philadelphia Museum of Art; repr. Erffra and Staley, op. cit., p. 186), and Agrippina with her Children (see Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; see R.S. Kraemer, Drawings by Benjamin West and his son Raphael Lamar WEst, exhibition catalogue, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, p. 19, repr. fig. 15, as of the 1780s)