Neal Auction 2012

W denotes the lot is illustrated at www.nealauction.com 47 170. Benjamin West, P. R. A. (British, 1738-1820) , “Seated Female Figure (Probably Study for a Portrait)”, probably c. late 1770s/early 1780s, graphite on buff laid paper, unsigned, 7 5/8 in. x 8 1/2 in., in a composite dealer’s mount inscribed “from his studio/ D23 917C/ 6 [in a circle]”. $2500/3500 Provenance: Colnaghi’s, London, 1961; James R. Lamantia, Jr., New Orleans and New York. Note: This unusually clear and handsome sketch is a highly characteristic work by West (as its provenance from one of the world’s foremost dealerships in old master drawings would suggest). Its head is a marvel of economy, with its few pencil strokes establishing the basic profile and cranial structure: its uplifted pose and loose hair, in addition to its concentration on the shadows of the eyelids, below the nose and mouth, and in the shaded neck, are very closely paralleled (for example) 169. Frederick Goodall, R.A. (British, 1822- 1904) , “The Way to the Tomb”, 1894, oil on board, monogrammed and dated lower right, 13 1/2 in. x 22 in., in a gilt frame. $2000/3000 Provenance: Morton’s Auction Exchange, New Orleans, March, 1979, lot 79. Note: English painter Frederick Goodall, R.A. first gained notoriety when he won a silver medal at the Society of Arts in 1937 at the age of 14. Two years later he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the first of many exhibitions at that institution. In the early years, Goodall painted mostly peasant and genre scenes which brought him much acclaim and he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1852 and a full member of that body in 1863. His world view changed greatly in 1858 when he took the first of two trips to Egypt. These trips and the work he produced helped to cement his legacy as an Orientalist painter. In this example, the, the body of a notable Egyptian is being carried by six men to the tomb through topography reminiscent of the Valley of the Kings. The body is most probably that of an important leader and quite possibly a Pharaoh based on the size of the funeral procession that appears far away on the ridge in the center of the painting. Goodall’s career flourished in his lifetime. He became one of the most sought-after painters in Britain and his name helped establish two of his children Frederick T. and Herbert as artists. on a sheet of studies by West at the Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College. West’s trademark gown with its high waist and clinging skirt is similar to that in his Design for a Pediment at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA; the fall of the bodice across the right breast, and the shape of the girdle, match West’s drawing The Destroying Angel at the Royal Academy; while the gestures here of the right arm, hand, and sleeve are identical to those in his Belisarius of 1784 at the Philadelphia Museum. The handling throughout is closely reflected in the Raising of Lazarus at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (which now holds the largest collection of West’s drawings). The head here has an almost exact cognate in another sheet of sketches for an Ascension at the Morgan, while the general composition, the supporting block, and especially the summary, shorthand feet appearing beneath the gown are repeated in the same collection’s Seated Sibyl . This figure’s overall attitude, and specifically the almost automatic parallel strokes around its contours, find close cognates in the Morgan’s Seated Male Nude; and the basic compositional type is exactly paralleled in their Seated Woman with a Musical Instrument, which is fully developed as a study for West’s famous painting of Mrs. William Beckford (now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington), for that family’s celebrated site at Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire. References: Ruth S. Kraemer, Drawings by Benjamin West, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1975, pp. 11-12, no. 15, pl. 7; 16-18, no. 23, fig. 10 and pl. 12; 38-39, no. 63, pl. 37; 39-40, no. 66, fig. 26; 63-64, no. 120, pl. 77; and 71-72, no. 158, pls. 86-87. Frederick Cummings and Allen Staley, Romantic Art in Britain: Paintings and Drawings 1760-1860, Philadelphia, 1968, pp. 99-100, no. & fig. 50; Hans Fletcher, [T]he Royal Academy, Washington, 1982, no.10. 169 170