Study for 'The Last Supper'

Details

Benjamin West, P.R.A. (1738-1820)
Study for 'The Last Supper'
pencil, lightly squared, the outlines indented
16 x 23½ in. (40.6 x 59.7 cm.)

Provenance

The artist's family, and by descent to
Mrs P. Howard; Sotheby's, London, 22 March 1979, part of lot 26, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

H. von Erffa and A. Staley, op. cit., no. 344, n. 3.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1784, no. 437.
Texas, San Antonio Museum of Art, Revealed Religion: Benjamin West's Commissions for Windsor Castle and Fonthill Abbey, 18 September - 13 November 1983, no. 21.

Engraved

Thomas Ryder, 1797.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

The present drawing relates to the Last Supper now in Tate Britain (1784; fig. 1). The painting was one of two versions of the subject executed by West for King George III between 1784 and 1786, both intended for chapels at Windsor Castle. A similar study, slightly looser in style and emphasising the tonal qualities of the composition, rather than its disegno, was last recorded in a private collection (von Erffa & Staley, 345).

The precision of the present drawing, along with the fact that it has been squared for transfer, may suggest that West executed it after the completion of the painting, in order to give guidance to an engraver.

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