Autumn or Winter and Theseus or Hercules carrying a Bull
Robert Fagan (1761 - Rome 1816)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1793 - 1795
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1092 x 1460 mm (43 x 57 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 609082
Caption
Robert Fagan was a somewhat bohemian figure of Irish parentage who lived in Rome from 1784 to 1807, painting portraits, excavating and selling classical sculpture, and dealing in Old Masters. He was Consul General at Naples and Palermo. In 1799 in association with another artist, Charles Grignion (1754-1804), he acquired the two famous Altieri paintings by Claude (1600-1682) and under difficulties shipped them to England where they were bought by William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844). In a fit of melancholia in 1816 he committed suicide by throwing himself out of a window. All four grisailles (monochrome paintings) by him at Attingham were presumably commissioned by Thomas Noel Hill, 2nd Lord Berwick (1770-1832), on his visit to Italy in July 1792. They were all copied from antique prototypes, this one after a terracotta relief in the Campana Collection , now in the Louvre, Paris.
Summary
This oil painting on canvas forms part of the decorative scheme on the walls of the Entrance Hall at Attingham Park. The painting is after a terracotta relief from the Campana Collection in the Louvre, Paris. It depicts Autumn or Winter and Theseus or Hercules carrying a Bull. The painting is by Robert Fagan (Cork c.1745 – Rome 1816) and was painted around 1793 to 1795. It was designed as a grisaille overdoor for the Entrance Hall and comissioned by Thomas the 2nd Lord Berwick of Attingham (1770-1832). The painting shows two full-length figures. On the left a female, robed, is shown in profile to the right walking forward. Her left foot is bent backwards and she holds a long club on her left shoulder. From the left end of the club hangs a rabbit and from the right end hang two birds. She drags behind her held in her right hand a dead pig or boar. The muscular male figure on the right is naked and shown in profile to the right. He is moving forward, his right leg in front of him. He holds a dead bull, upside-down on his left shoulder. A lion’s skin, which is suspended from his left shoulder, hangs to the ground.
Provenance
Presumably commissioned by Thomas Noel Hill, 2nd Lord Berwick (1770-1832) on his visit to Naples in 1792/3; bequeathed to the National Trust in 1947 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
Robert Fagan (1761 - Rome 1816), artist