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Phaeton
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Phaeton
Phaeton
The Trustees of the British Museum
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Artist
William Woollett (1735-1785) after Wilson
Title
Phaeton
Date
1763
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Metric: 457 x 532 mm
Imperial: 18 x 21 in.
Details
Links
Collection
The British Museum.
To license image, click here
Accession Number
S,1.21
Wilson Online Reference
E12
Description
Landscape with Phaeton and Apollo in the centre. Phaeton kneels before his father, asking permission to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens for one day. There are nymphs to the right and to left, a flock of sheep and a shepherd on the next hill. The river Styx can be seen behind, a temple to the right and a castle, with the rays of the sun over it.
Exhibited
[An impression] Free Society of Artists, 1763 (246 - Phaeton's suit to Apollo: a proof print)
Signature/inscription
Unlettered
Subject
The narrative comes from the first part of the story as told by Ovid in
Metamorphoses
, Book 2, ll. 31-102, where Apollo agrees to grant his son, Phaeton, any wish he desires as a proof of paternity. In response Phaeton asks to be allowed to drive his father's chariot across the sky for one day - with disastrous consequences.
Related Paintings
P119A
Landscape with Phaeton's Petition to Apollo
, Private Collection
Critical commentary
At the 1763 exhibition of the Free Society of Artists the print was compared unfavourably by Tobias Smollett with George Stubbs's print of the same subject that had been exhibited the previous year. However, as noted by Martin Postle, Smollett did praise Woollett, whose star was rapidly rising: 'The engraver has shown all his art in the sky and in the rays of the sun, which strike over and about the building; and we never before saw the light and shadow so well preserved in any print so very delicately engraved.'
Bibliography
T. Smollett,
The Critical Review; or Annals of Literature
, vol. 16, London, 1763, p. 314; Booth Notes Doc. 4; Booth Notes Doc. 7; Edwards 1808, p. 88; Fagan 1885, pp. 22-23, cat. LI, 2nd State; Clayton 1997, pp. 198-99
Condition/Conservation
Trimmed
Work of Art
Prints
William Pengree Sherlock, Lefevre & Kohler after Wilson,
Phaeton
, The British Museum
Versions
William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson,
Phaeton
, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson,
Faetonte
, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson,
Phaeton
, The British Museum
William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson,
Phaeton
, Royal Academy of Arts, London
William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson,
Phaeton
, The British Museum
Paintings
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782),
Phaeton's Petition to Apollo
, Private Collection
Biographies
William Woollett (1735-1785)
Lord Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803)
Documents
Edward Edwards,
Anecdotes of Painters who have resided or been born in England; with critical Remarks on their Productions
Louis Fagan,
A Catalogue Raisonné of the engraved Works of William Woollett
Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 4: Biographical Fragments and abandoned List of Works
Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 7: List of Prints after Wilson's Paintings