Vertumnus and Pomona
John Hoppner, RA (London 1758 – London 1810)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1778 - 1810
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1295 x 1003 mm (51 x 39 1/2 in)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486149
Caption
Vertumnus and Pomona were gods who protected gardens and orchards and encouraged the ripening of fruits. Vertumnus set about trying to seduce Pomona, using a variety of rustic disguises. He managed to speak to her as an old woman, but his pleas for his own cause fell on deaf ears. He proceeded to reveal himself to her in his true shape, as a resplendent and youthful god, and Pomona succumbed.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Vertumnus and Pomona by John Hoppner, RA (London 1758 – London 1810). Vertumnus, the Sabine and Roman God of the transformation and fructification of plants, and Pomona. Pomona is seated on the right, with bare arms and with Vertumnus on the left, in red, offering her a chaplet. He won Pomona by metamorphosing himself into a youth. His festival, the Vortumnalia, was held 23rd August.
Provenance
In the collection of the 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) by 1835. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1957 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Makers and roles
John Hoppner, RA (London 1758 – London 1810), artist