Currently not on view
Phaedria and Cymochles,
ca. 1830
William Etty, 1787–1849; born and died York, England
y1967-24
"Along the shore, as swift as glance of eye, A little gondelay, bedecked trim With boughs and arbours woven cunningly, That like a little forest seemed outwardly . . . And therein sate a ladye fresh and fayre . . ."
-Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book II Canto VI (1596)
The above passage from Spenser's epic poem representing the twelve moral virtues served as Etty's inspiration for this painting. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832, it attracted attention because of its potential eroticism. While searching for the protagonist of Book II-sir Guyon, the personification of Temperance-the knight Cymochles is lured by the temptress Phaedria onto her boat. The bird and butterfly, the boat on the verge of capsizing, and the juxtaposition of masculine armor and female flesh are manifestations of a poetic fantasy. Etty's depiction of fleshy bodies and his warm palette and vigorous application of paint mark his rejection of the cold tonality of neoclassical painting. He was influenced by the Venetian painters whose works he copied early in his career. Etty in turn influenced other artists, such as his friend Eugène Delacroix.
-Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book II Canto VI (1596)
The above passage from Spenser's epic poem representing the twelve moral virtues served as Etty's inspiration for this painting. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832, it attracted attention because of its potential eroticism. While searching for the protagonist of Book II-sir Guyon, the personification of Temperance-the knight Cymochles is lured by the temptress Phaedria onto her boat. The bird and butterfly, the boat on the verge of capsizing, and the juxtaposition of masculine armor and female flesh are manifestations of a poetic fantasy. Etty's depiction of fleshy bodies and his warm palette and vigorous application of paint mark his rejection of the cold tonality of neoclassical painting. He was influenced by the Venetian painters whose works he copied early in his career. Etty in turn influenced other artists, such as his friend Eugène Delacroix.
Information
Title
Phaedria and Cymochles
Dates
ca. 1830
Maker
Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
62.5 × 76 cm (24 5/8 × 29 15/16 in.)
frame: 80.8 × 94.1 × 5.6 cm (31 13/16 × 37 1/16 × 2 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Benjamin Sonnenberg
Object Number
y1967-24
Place Made
Europe, England
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
Wynn Ellis Esq. 1832 to 1874; Christie's, London, May 6, 1876, lot 5; Graystone; James Gresham, Woodleys Park, Ashton-on-Mersey, 1874 to 1917; Lady Lever Art Gallery to 1958; Christie's, London, June 6, 1958, lot 117; Maas Gallery, London; purchase by Benjamin Sonnenberg; gift to Princeton University Art Museum.
- The exhibition of the Royal Academy, MDCCCXXXII, (London: [Royal Academy?], 1832)., no. 360
- Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of art in Great Britain: being an account of the chief collections of paintings, drawings, sculptures, illuminated mss., &c. &c., (London: J. Murray, 1854)., Vol. 2: p. 169
- Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Etty, R. A., (London: D. Bogue, 1855)., Vol. 1: p. 345; Vol. 2: p. 28, 337
- Catalogue of the art treasures of the United Kingdom collected at Manchester in 1857, (London: Bradbury and Evans, 1857)., not illustrated
- Catalogue of the first portion of the highly important collection of modern pictures, chiefly of the early English school, formed by that well-known amateur, Wynn Ellis, Esq., deceased..., (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1876)., no. 5
- R. R. Tatlock, Roger Fry, R. L. Hobson, Percy Macquoid and C. Reginald Grundy, A record of the collections in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Cheshire, formed by the first Viscount Leverhulme, (London: B.T. Batsford, 1928)., Volume 1: p. 94, no. 3306
- WIlliam Gaunt, Etty and the nude: the art and life of William Etty, R.A., 1787-1849, (Leigh-on-sea, UK: F. Lewis, 1943)., p. 93, no. 360
- Dennis Farr, William Etty, (London: Routledge & Paul, 1958)., p. 151, no. 78
- Catalogue of modern pictures & drawings, mainly of the British school of the nineteenth century, the property of the trustees of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, coming from the collection of the 1st Lord Leverhulme..., (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1958)., no. 117 (photocopy of catalogue on file)
- Thomas L. Sloan, "Phaedria and Cymochles on the Idle Lake", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 27, no. 2 (1968): 81-83., p. 82; p. 83 (illus.)
- Alfreda J. Murck, "Acquisitions 1967," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 27, no. 1 (1968): p. 35-41., p. 37
- Elzea Rowland and Betty Rowland, The Pre-Raphaelite era, 1848-1914: an exhibition in celebration of the Nation’s Bicentennial, April 12-June 6, 1976, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, (Wilmington, Delaware: Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, 1976)., p. 30, fig. 2-15; p. 31
- Susan P. Casteras, The substance or the shadow: images of Victorian womanhood, (New Haven, CT: Yale Center for British Art, 1982)., p. 72-73; no. 30
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 252 (illus.)
- Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene: an exhibition on the occasion of the four-hundredth anniversary of its publication, Princeton University Library, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Library, 1990)., p. 56-63; p. 57, fig. 33
- The Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures and Works of Art, (London: Christie's, 2003).,
-
Patrick Noon et al., Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics. (London: Tate, 2003).
, p. 138 - Leonard Robinson, William Etty: the life and art, (Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2007)., p. 283
