Hesiod (c. 8th century BC) instructing the Greeks in the Arts of Peace
Richard Westall, RA (Reepham 1765 - London 1836)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1796 - 1796 (exh at RA)
Materials
Watercolour with touches of bodycolour on paper
Measurements
527 x 692 mm (20 ¾ x 27 ¼ in)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 607880
Caption
Hesiod, born in Ascra at the foot of Mount Helicon, and son of a sea captain, was one of the earliest known Greek poets of 8th century BC. He is best known for two works, ‘Works and Days’, exalting honest labour and denouncing corrupt and unjust judges whilst advising which are lucky or unlucky days for a farmer to carry out certain tasks and ‘Theogany’ which teaches the origin of the universe and a history of the gods. He is supposed to have had a poetical contest with Homer which took place either at Chalcis or Aulis. Horace Walpole described the watercolour when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796 as ‘by far one of the finest compositions ever painted in England’ along with its ‘beautiful beyond description’ companion picture of the female poet Sappho (now lost). It had been listed in an old Attingham inventory as Christ Preaching and for some time erroneously attributed to Richard’s younger brother, William.
Summary
Watercolour with touches of bodycolour on paper, Hesiod (c. 8th century BC) instructing the Greeks in the Arts of Peace by Richard Westall, RA (Hertford 1765 - London 1836); not William Westall ARA (Hertford 1781 – St John’s Wood 1850). The bard is seated at the left with his lyre beneath a tree, surrounded by a group of men and women in robes. It is likely that a specific character is portrayed - but certainly not, as listed in old Attingham inventory, is it Christ preaching.
Provenance
Commissioned by William Noel-Hill, 3rd Baron Berwick (1773-1842) and paid the artist 300 gns for the pair with Sappho in the Lesbian Shades chanting the Hymn of Love (now lost); by descent in Attingham collection; bequeathed to the National Trust with the estate, house and contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) on 15th May 1953
Credit line
Attingham Park, The Berwick Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Richard Westall, RA (Reepham 1765 - London 1836), publisher previously catalogued as by William Westall (Hertford 1781 - St John’s Wood 1850), publisher previously catalogued as by Richard Westall, RA (Reepham 1765 - London 1836), publisher
References
Solkin 2015 David H. Solkin, Art in Britain 1660 - 1815, Pelican History of Art, Yale University Press, 2015, p. 254, fig. 258 Westall 1984 Richard J. Westall, ‘The Westall Brothers’, Turner Studies, 4/1 (1984), pp. 23–38