Ceyx and Alcyone (after Richard Wilson)
William Woollett (Maidstone 1735 - London 1785)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
31 Jul 1769
Materials
Engraving with etching on paper
Measurements
445 x 546 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
The Argory, County Armagh
NT 564999
Summary
Engraving with etching on paper, Ceyx and Alcyone (after Richard Wilson) by William Woollett (Maidstone 1735 - London 1785), published 1769. Wilson painted Ceyx and Alcyone (exhibited at Society of Artists in 1768 and now in National Museum Wales, Cardiff) with an engraving in mind, commissioned by the print-publishing partnership of William Wynne Ryland and Henry Bryer. The scene depicted is from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamophoses XI that relates the shipwreck of Ceyx on his way to consult the oracle Claros. His wife Alcyone dreamed of the tragedy and was so distraught when she found out it was true, as his corpse is dragged ashore, that the pitying gods transformed the couple into birds. It has been suggested, anecdotally, that Wilson composed the rocky cliff and tower above by studying a pot of beer on a Stilton cheese.
Makers and roles
William Woollett (Maidstone 1735 - London 1785), engraver (printmaker) after Richard Wilson (Penegoes 1714 - Mold 1782), artist
References
Fagan 1885 Louis Fagan, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Engraved Works of William Woollett, London, 1885, no. LXV Clayton 1997 Timothy Clayton, The English Print 1688 - 1802, New Haven and London, 1997, 190, 193 Constable 1953 W. G. Constable, Richard Wilson, London, 1953, 42, 166, notes pl. 25a