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    300 years
    Return to "Wilson and Europe 2014 " is linked to these Works 122 items
    of 122

    Meleager and Atalanta

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    Meleager and Atalanta
    Meleager and Atalanta
    Meleager and Atalanta
    The Trustees of the British Museum
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    Artist
    William Woollett (1735-1785) and Benjamin Thomas Pouncy after Wilson
    Title
    Meleager and Atalanta
    Date
    1779 (undated)
    Medium
    Etching
    Dimensions
    Metric: 442 x 552 mm
    Imperial: 17 3/8 x 21 3/4 in.
    Collection
    The British Museum. To license image, click here
    Accession Number
    1978,U.299
    Wilson Online Reference
    E46A
    Description
    A wild landscape with a castle and aqueduct in the distance is shown against a stormy sky. In a clearing before a waterfall a group of men surround an enormous boar and Meleager, on horseback, drives a spear into it. His colleague, Anceus lies fallen and Atalanta, with two female attendants, aims an arrow at the beast from the far left.
    Provenance
    Acquired 1978
    Signature/inscription
    Scratched below the image:
    [1] Lower left: 'Painted by R Wilson'
    [2] Lower right: 'The Figures by W. Woollett. the Landscape by B T Pouncy'
    Subject
    The subject is taken from the Roman poet, Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC - AD 17/18) known as Ovid. The lovers Meleager and Atalanta killed a huge boar sent by the goddess Diana to devastate the countryside of Calydon. Meleager presented the hide to Atalanta but his uncles, the sons of Thestius, took it from her, whereupon he killed them, leading to his own death (Metamorphoses Book VIII, lines 260-546).
    Related Drawings
    D167 Study of an antique Altar, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Dyce.661)
    Related Prints
    E23 Richard Earlom, Meleager and Atalanta, 1771, The British Museum (2006,U.403) and other impressions
    E55 William Woollett and Benjamin Pouncy after Wilson, Meleager and Atalanta, 1794, Royal Academy of Arts, London (PL006185) and other impressions
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Works by Other Artists
    NWD406 Ascribed to John Hamilton Mortimer after Wilson, Meleager and Atalanta
    Critical commentary
    The first recorded owner of P163 Meleager and Atalanta, Tate, London, was the print and map publisher, Robert Sayer, who commissioned Richard Earlom to produce a mezzotint after the painting, published in 1771 (E23). Sayer went on publish the present engraving by Woollett and Pouncy in 1779 and a further one by the same printmakers in 1794 (E55), testaments to the enduring popularity of the subject. He paid John Hamilton Mortimer to replace some of the figures with his own, to the understandable annoyance of Wilson. Probably at the latter's insistence the distinction between the artists was recorded in the lettering of this and other later states of this print.
    Bibliography
    Edwards 1808, p. 88; Fagan 1885, p. 46, cat. 103, 2nd State; WGC pp. 42, 166, under pl. 25b; Simon 1979; Simon 1981; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 289 (a later impression)
    More Information
    A later impression with different lettering distinguishing the roles of Wilson (landscape) and John Hamilton Mortimer (figures) is at the British Museum (1842,1112.36). This was exhibited at the Tercentenary Exhibition (108)
    Condition/Conservation
    Etched state before engraving and publication line added

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Study of an antique Altar, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

    Prints

    • Richard Earlom after Wilson, Meleager and Atalanta, The British Museum
    • Richard Earlom after Wilson, Meleager and Atalanta, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and Benjamin Thomas Pouncy after Wilson, Meleager and Atalanta, Royal Academy of Arts, London

    Versions

    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and Benjamin Thomas Pouncyafter Wilson, Meleager and Atalanta, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Meleager and Atalanta, Tate, London

    Works by Other Artists

    • Ascribed to John Hamilton Mortimer after Wilson, Meleager and Atalanta

    Biographies

    • William Woollett (1735-1785)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • 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
    • Robin Simon, 'New Light on Richard Wilson'
    • Robin Simon, 'Richard Wilson's Meleager and Atalanta'
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