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    Ceyx and Alcyone

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    Ceyx and Alcyone
    Ceyx and Alcyone
    Ceyx and Alcyone
    National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
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    Artist
    William Woollett (1735-1785) after Wilson
    Title
    Ceyx and Alcyone
    Date
    Published 31 July 1769
    Medium
    Engraving
    Dimensions
    Metric: 465 x 565 mm
    Imperial: 18 5/16 x 22 1/4 in.
    Collection
    National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    3635/3
    Wilson Online Reference
    E20G
    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 is a ruined castle.
    Provenance
    Purchased 1928
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned
    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, Charlotte Str: Rathbone Place, R. Sayer & J. Bennett, Fleet Street, & J. Boydell, Cheapside, 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.
    Related Prints
    A further impression is at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery (Ma1566)
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    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, 7th State; Clayton 1997, pp. 190, 193, 195
    Condition/Conservation
    A good, bold impression.

    Work of Art

    Versions

    • William Woollett (1735-1785)after Wilson, Ceyx and Alcyone, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
    • 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 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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