Studies for a Crucifixion

Details

Benjamin West, P.R.A. (Pennsylvania 1738-1820 London)
Studies for a Crucifixion
pencil, on oatmeal paper
11½ x 16 in. (292 x 406 mm.); and 10¼ x 15 in. (260 x 381 mm.) (2)

Provenance

The artist's family, and by descent to
Mrs P. Howard; Sotheby's, London, 22 March 1979, part of lot 13.

Special notice

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

Sale room notice

Please note that this lot is being sold with no reserve.

Lot Essay

With some variation in detail, these two drawings and a large drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library (R.S. Kraemer, Drawings by Benjamin West and his son Raphael Lamar West, The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, p. 58, no. 104 and pl. 66) include depictions of the same group of figures. In 1975 Kraemer speculated that the Morgan's drawing was related to an immense painting of the Crucifixion which, in 1817, West told Joseph Farington he had drawn in on canvas, but about which he had no further knowledge. In 1817 the artist was 79 and nearing the end of his life and it is fair to assume that the painting was not completed.

More from Old Master & British Pictures & Old Master Drawings

View All