Paetus and Arria

Details

Benjamin West, P.R.A. (Swarthmore, PA 1738-1820 London)
Paetus and Arria
signed and dated 'Benj.-West 1770' (upper right)
oil on canvas
36 x 30 in. (91.5 x 76.2 cm.)

Provenance

Offered by his sons, Raphael and Benjamin, to the United States in 1826.
Artist's sale; (+) Robins, London, 22-25 May 1829, lot 161 (70 gns to Rothschild).
with Appleby Brothers, London.
Robert D. Childs, Boston, 1956.
Dr. Simon Stone, Manchester, New Hampshire, acquired in London, by 1960.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 21 July 1989, lot 197.

Literature

J. Locquin, Le Peinture d'histoire en France de 1747 à 1785, Paris, 1912, p. 154.
H. von Erffa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven, 1986, pp. 41-42, 182, no. 39.

Exhibited

London, Benjamin West's Gallery, 1821, no. 92.
London, Benjamin West's Gallery, 1822-28, no. 104 [or no. 140].

Engraved

Robert Dunkarton (1744-c.1810), mezzotint; published by John Boydell, 1 March 1773.

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Lot Essay

The subject of the present work is taken from Pliny's Letters, III, 16.

Two other versions of the same subject by West are known, one at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (op. cit., no.38), and the other, location unknown, dating from circa 1781 (op. cit., no. 40).

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