Orestes and Electra
Robert Fagan (1761 - Rome 1816)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1793 - 1795
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1200 x 1048 mm (47 1/4 x 41 1/4 in)
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 609096
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Orestes and Electra by Robert Fagan (Cork c.1745 – Rome 1816), 1793/95. Two full length figures: Orestes as a youth on the left, turned three-quarters to right, right profile, naked apart from a short toga draped over his left shoulder and loins, he looks up at Electra, his right arm outstretched to her. Electra to the right, turned three-quarters to the left, is dressed in classical robes and sandals, looks down on Orestes and grasps his right forearm in her left hand, her right arm touching his back. After the original by Marcus Kossoutius Menelaos, Greco-Roman, the Ludovisi Collection, 1st half of the 1st century AD., marble, height 1.92 m. in the Museo Nazionale, Rome.
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