Arethusa
John Edward Carew (c.1785 - 1868)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1823
Materials
Marble
Measurements
1405 mm (Height)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486407
Summary
Marble sculpture, Arethusa by John Edward Carew (Tramore, County Waterford c.1782 – London 1868), 1823. The first work by Carew to be acquired by the 3rd Earl of Egremont directly from Carew's London studio in 1823. The Irish sculptor, and former assistant to Sir Richard Westmacott, was thereafter to be showered with commissions. Arethusa, according to the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses 5: 572-641) was a nymph who was transformed into a stream by the goddess Diana, thus protecting her from the amorous advances of a river-god. Here, Carew depicts her, scantily clad, with a greyhound (without classical authority) as a companion of Diana.
Provenance
Bought by the 3rd Earl of Egremont in 1823, as a companion to Adonis and the Boar (NT 486404); 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.
Marks and inscriptions
J.E. CAREW. 1824 (engraved on base near greyhound's paws)
Makers and roles
John Edward Carew (c.1785 - 1868), sculptor