On view
Wilmerding Pavilion
Sarah Shaw Anschutz Gallery
The Woman Clothed with the Sun Fleeth from the Persecution of the Dragon,
ca. 1797
More Context
Handbook Entry
Among the several works at Princeton by the expatriate painter Benjamin West, who ascended to the apex of British art circles and famously assisted the development of American artists visiting London, are images derived from each of his — and from late-eighteenth-century academic painting’s — principal preoccupations: subjects drawn from mythological, historical, and religious sources. Although its fantastic imagery suggests the first category, <em>Woman Clothed with the Sun</em> in fact closely illustrates a passage from the New Testament’s apocalyptic book of Revelation, wherein a woman, probably representing Israel, delivers a child from the pursuit of a dragon, said to represent Christ and Satan, respectively: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. . . . And behold a great red dragon . . . and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne." This work is part of a commission for William Beckford’s unrealized Revelation Chamber at Fonthill Abbey, his fabulous Gothic Revival folly in Wiltshire. As its arched shape suggests, it is likely a study for a stained-glass window.
Information
ca. 1797
Europe, England
- The exhibition of the Royal Academy, MDCCXCVIII. The thirtieth. (London: The Royal Academy of Arts, 1798), no. 232
- “A Correct List of the Works of Mr. West,” Universal Magazine 3 (1805), p. 528
- “A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq. / ... / Mr. West’s House at Windsor. / Pictures painted by Mr. West for his own Collection.... / In the Gallery,” in La Belle Assemblée IV, Supplement (1808), p. 14
- John Galt, The life, studies, and works of Benjamin West, esq., president of the Royal academy of London, composed from materials furnished by himself, (London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies; [etc., etc.], 1820)., Appendix II, p. 219
- John Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life’s Work (San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University Press, 1977), p. 11, fig. 176; pl. 109, p. 150; p. 194, no. 232; p. 213
- Nancy L. Pressly, Revealed Religion: Benjamin West’s Commissions for Windsor Castle and Fonthill Abbey (San Antonio, Texas: San Antonio Museum of Art, 1983), cat. no. 18
- Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986), no. 153; p. 244 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1996," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 56, no. 1/2 (1997): p. 75-115., pp. 97–98
- John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 328, checklist no. 651
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 349
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 121
