[King Lear and Cordelia] [graphic] / B. West, 1793.
1793
Items
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPa82
Details
Title
[King Lear and Cordelia] [graphic] / B. West, 1793.
Variant title
Royal Academy title (1794): Cordelia making herself known to her father, King Lear
Belle Assemblée title (1808): Couch scene of King Lear and his daughter
Belle Assemblée title (1808): Couch scene of King Lear and his daughter
Created/published
1793.
Description
1 painting : oil on canvas ; 19 x 23 9/16 in. (48.1 x 60 cm) + frame 27 x 31 x 3.5 inches.
Associated name
West, Benjamin, 1738-1820, artist.
Bowles, George, of Wanstead, -1817, former owner.
Kennedy, Willoughby Pitcairn, -1928, former owner.
Bowles, George, of Wanstead, -1817, former owner.
Kennedy, Willoughby Pitcairn, -1928, former owner.
Material base
canvas
Note
Versions: Painting (42 x 56 1/2 in.) ca. 1784, bought by Peter, duke of Courland, Mitau, and Berlin, now unlocated (von Erffa and Staley 1986, no. 212) but known from a print by Daniel Berger of 1791; painting owned by Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, Calif. (42 1/2 x 57 in.) similar in composition to Berger print, though cropped at edges, repr. in von Erffa and Staley 1986, no. 213; painting (18 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.) unlocated, von Erffa and Staley 1986, no. 214, presumably the image reproduced in Richard Earlom's mezzotint of 1 January 1799 (18 x 22 15/16 in.)
Related studies: Von Erffa and Staley mention that West's son Benjamin sold a drawing entitled "King Lear and Cordelia" in 1839; one drawing of this subject, dated 1783, is in the British Museum and another is in the Toledo Museum of Art. A related composition is found in three drawings entitled "Esau selling his Birthright for A Dish of Pottage" in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.
Title from Pressly.
Related studies: Von Erffa and Staley mention that West's son Benjamin sold a drawing entitled "King Lear and Cordelia" in 1839; one drawing of this subject, dated 1783, is in the British Museum and another is in the Toledo Museum of Art. A related composition is found in three drawings entitled "Esau selling his Birthright for A Dish of Pottage" in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.
Title from Pressly.
Publications about material
"A Correct Catalogue of the works of Benjamin West, Esq.," La Belle Assemblee or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine 4 (1808), Supplement, p. 19 ("The Grecian Daughter defending her father from the tyrant-Its companion, the Couch scene of King Lear and his Daughter," painted for Mr. Bowles of Wanstead); John Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life's Work, San Antonio, 1977, p. 188, no. 497; Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven and London, 1986, p. 276, no. 215.
Engravings: Richard Earlom, published in 1799, after one of the earlier versions.
Engravings: Richard Earlom, published in 1799, after one of the earlier versions.
Provenance
Provenance: Painted for George Bowles (died 1817) of Wanstead (this information is derived from a printed label in the middle of the upper portion of the back of the frame: "B. West, P.R.A., 1792 [inaccurate date] / The Death of King Lear [inaccurate] / 19 in. by 24 in. / Engraved in Boydell's edition of Shakespeare [inaccurate] / From the Wanstead House Collection"); in the collection of Lt. Col. Willoughby Pitcairn Kennedy, who retired in 1906 to Lynedoch, W. Byfleet, Surrey, and died on 7 August 1928 (this information is derived from a label on lined paper in pen and ink at the lower left of the back of the frame: "No. 16. Drawing room / Death of King Lear by / B. West R.A. / Propt. Col. W. P. Kennedy"). Purchased by Folger from Newman F. McGirr, Rare Books, Prints, Autographs and Paintings, 10 S. 18th St. Room 211, Philadelphia, September 1929, $540.
Exhibited
Exhibited: 'As imagination bodies forth...' [paintings] Oct. 28, 1993-Feb. 15, 1994.
Cited/described in
Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 84
Linked resources
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPa82
Genre/form
Paintings.
Item Details
Call number
FPa82
Folger-specific note
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