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    Phaeton's Petition to Apollo

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    Phaeton's Petition to Apollo
    Phaeton's Petition to Apollo
    Phaeton's Petition to Apollo
    Private Collection / Christie's Images Limited 2014
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Phaeton's Petition to Apollo
    Date
    c.1754-55 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 124.5 x 176.5 cm
    Imperial: 49 x 69 1/2 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection
    Wilson Online Reference
    P119A
    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, while Apollo gestures towards the significantly clouded setting sun. On either side are Phaeton's five weeping sisters, who were afterwards turned into poplars. There are a flock of sheep and a shepherd on the next hill. A temple and broad, winding river can be seen behind and Apollo's palace is silhouetted against a glowing golden sky.
    Exhibited
    SA 1763 (133 - A Large landskip with Phaeton's petition to Apollo) - probably this version; BI 1814 (209/215)
    Provenance
    Commissioned in Rome by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, c.1754-55; sold May 1801; Walsh Porter; his sale, Christie's London, 22 March 1803 (52) - 185 guineas to Earl Cowper; Francis, 5th Earl Cowper and by descent at Panshanger to Lady Desborough; her sale, Christie's, London, 16 October 1953 (151); W.H.G.T. Turner 1954; H.M. Luther, London 1966; Anon sale, Christie's 14 July 1976 (60); D.K.F. Heathcote, Badlingham Manor; Christie's London, 12 November 1999 (41)
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned, no inscription
    Subject
    The subject is taken from the first part of the story as told by Ovid in Metamorphoses, Book 1, lines 747 ff. and Book 2, lines 31-102. Phaeton petitioned his father, Apollo, God of the Sun, to let him drive his chariot across the sky for one day. Apollo, however, rightly feared that Phaeton would be unable to control the chariot and indeed, he began to plummet to earth. To save the world from catastrophe, Jupiter was forced to destroy him with a thunderbolt. As evidenced by the warm glow in the sky, the scene is very likely to be intended as an evening one to fit the story.
    Related Prints
    In reverse:
    E12 Williiam Woollett, Phaeton, 1763, The British Museum and other impressions
    E66 William Pengree Sherlock, Phaethon, The British Museum (1878,0511.622) and other impressions
    Normand fils, Phaeton, current location unknown
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    Pendant: P90A The Destruction of the Children of Niobe, Private Collection at Ashridge, England
    Critical commentary
    Although the picture was commissioned by Bridgewater, Farington stated in 1801 that '[Benjamin] West told me the Duke of Bridgewater has sold his two [pictures] by Wilson, viz: Phaeton & the Companion.' Alex Kidson noted that there is what seems to be a similar, but not identical, reflection of the figure of Apollo in the lake (probably a pentimento from an earlier figure) but that there is no such reflection of Phaeton. Kidson also questioned how much this picture might be read as a sunrise, given that the sun is on the right, presumably because of our instinct to take east as right and west as left. The treatment of the figures is comparable to P119, with an effort having been made there to replicate the effects of the drapery. It has been suggested that these figures were by an Italian artist working in London, possibly Cipriani.
    Bibliography
    Farington Diary, vol. 4, p. 1553 (24 May 1801); Booth Notes, Doc. 5, p. 1; Catalogue 1814, p. 22; probably Waagen 1854, vol. 3, p. 17, Letter XXIII, Panshanger: 'A sunrise in a romantic country, with a rock crowned by a castle. This poetically composed and carefully painted picture has become very dark; so that, as often happens with pictures of the English school, it does not answer the expectations which are raised by the fine engraving'; WGC, p. 163, pl. 22b; Hayes 1966, p. 195, p. 197, fig. 10 & n. 57; London, Cardiff and New Haven 1982-83, under no. 131; Clayton 1997, pp. 198-99; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 130, fig.107; P. Humfrey, 'The 3rd Duke of Bridgewater as a Collector of Old Master Paintings', Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 27, no. 2, 2015, pp. 214, 224, n. 28
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/23
    Updated by Compiler
    2021-10-14 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • William Woollett (1735-1785) after Wilson, Phaeton, The British Museum
    • 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, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) after Wilson, Phaeton, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
    • William Pengree Sherlock, Lefevre & Kohler after Wilson, Phaeton, The British Museum

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson and Studio Landscape with Phaeton's Petition to Apollo, Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The Destruction of the Children of Niobe, Private Collection at Ashridge, England (Pendant)

    Exhibitions

    • London, British Institution, 1814

    Biographies

    • Lord Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Joseph Farington, The Diary of Joseph Farington, July 1793 - December 1821
    • Gustav Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • Anonymous, Catalogue of Pictures by the late William Hogarth, Richard Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough, and J. Zoffani. Exhibited by permission of the proprietors in honour of the memory of those distinguished artists, and for the improvement of British art
    • John Hayes, 'British Patrons and Landscape Painting: 2. Eighteenth-century Collecting'
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 5: List of Wilson's Works with Owners
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