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    Ceyx and Alcyone

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    Ceyx and Alcyone
    Ceyx and Alcyone
    Ceyx and Alcyone
    Birmingham Museums Trust
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    Artist
    William Woollett (1735-1785) after Wilson
    Title
    Ceyx and Alcyone
    Date
    Published 31 July 1769
    Medium
    Line engraving and etching
    Dimensions
    Metric: 458 x 563 mm
    Imperial: 18 x 22 1/8 in.
    Collection
    Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. To license images click here.
    Accession Number
    1939P664
    Wilson Online Reference
    E20B
    Description
    A stormy sea, from which Ceyx's corpse is being brought ashore by two nymphs. Alcyone stands on the shore, distraught with grief, surrounded by four nymphs. Waves crash against a cliff, on the top of which are a ruined tower and other buildings.
    Provenance
    Acquired 1939
    Signature/inscription
    Lettered below image:
    [1] Upper left: 'R. Wilson pinxt. Londini'
    [2] Lower left: 'Cernit: erat conjux. Ille est exclamat: et una | Ora, comas, vestem lacerat: tendensque trementes | Ad Ceyca manus. Sic, o carissime conjux, | Sic, ad me, miserande, redis? ait. ____ Ovid. Met. XL. 725.'
    [3] Lower centre: 'CEYX and ALCYONE. | From an Original Picture in the Possession of Ryland & Bryer. | Publish'd July 31st. 1769, as the Act directs, by Wm.Woollett, in Green Street, Leicester Fields, & Ryland & Bryer, at the King's Arms, in Cornhill, LONDON.'
    [4] Lower right: 'She knows too much in knowing whom she sees; | Her Husband's Corps; at this 'she loudly shrieks, | 'Tis he, 'tis he, she cries, and tears her cheeks, | Her Hair, and Vest. ______ | And it is thus. O dearer than my Life, | Thus, thus returnst thou to thy longing Wife! Dryden.'
    Subject
    The source is Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XI, 710-42. Ceyx was on his way to consult the oracle at Claros when he was shipwrecked. His doting wife, Alcyone, dreamed of the disaster and the next morning she discovered his drowned body being washed ashore. She was so distraught that the gods took pity on the couple and transformed them into birds.
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    A further impression is at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery (Ma1566)
    Related Paintings
    P157 Ceyx and Alcyone, National Museum Wales, Cardiff (NMW A 65)
    Critical commentary
    Published by Ryland & Bryer and William Woollett. The sublime setting, here reminiscent of Vernet's stormy shipwrecks, was probably intended to repeat the success of Woollett's Niobe, (E11, National Museum Wales and other impressions) published by John Boydell in 1761. Solkin suggested that the subject was chosen for the commercial appeal of combined themes of love, fidelity, pathos and tragedy.
    Bibliography
    Fagan 1885, p. 30, cat. LXV, 6th State; Clayton 1997, pp. 190, 193, 195
    Condition/Conservation
    Laid down on canvas and in bad condition

    Work of Art

    Versions

    • William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson, Ceyx and Alcyone, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    • William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson, Ceyx and Alcyone, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson, Ceyx and Alcyone, The British Museum
    • William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson, Ceyx and Alcyone, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson, Ceyx and Alcyone, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
    • William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson, Ceyx and Alcyone, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Ceyx and Alcyone, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Biographies

    • William Woollett (1735-1785)

    Documents

    • Louis Fagan, A Catalogue Raisonné of the engraved Works of William Woollett
    • Timothy Clayton, The English Print, 1688-1802
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