Benjamin West, P.R.A. (Springfield, Pennsylvania 1738-1820 Condor)

Adonis setting off for the Chase

Details

Benjamin West, P.R.A. (Springfield, Pennsylvania 1738-1820 Condor)
Adonis setting off for the Chase
pen and brown ink, watermark unidentified
2 13/16 x 2 5/16 in. (7.1 x 6 cm.); with another pen and ink drawing Jacob tending Laban's sheep 5¾ x 4¼ in. (14.6 x 10.8 cm.) by the same hand (2)

Provenance

with Agnew's, London, 1962.

Literature

H. von Erfa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven and London, 1986, p. 227, no. 114, n. 1.

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Lot Essay

Adonis is presumably a first compositional sketch for the finished painting in the Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, H. von Erffa and A. Staley, loc. cit.
The second drawing may illustrate Genesis 31, vv. 11-12 in which an angel appears to Jacob in a dream and tells him to 'lift up his eyes, and see all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled and grisled.'

We are grateful to Professor Allen Staley for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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