Il Penseroso
Oil Painting
1848 (made)
1848 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
Oil paintings such as this with subjects taken from literature steadily replaced commissions for history paintings in the early 19th century. The public and most collectors of modern works started to prefer lighter and sometimes more sentimental themes.
Subjects Depicted
This painting is an illustration to John Milton's 1632 poem `Il Penseroso', an invocation to the goddess Melancholy, so that she might bring the poet a life of quiet study and meditation. `But hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy.' Like the poem, it is a companion to `L'Allegro', also described here.
A contemporary critic spoke of this painting as `The most profoundly sentimental figure that the artist has ever painted.'
People
Charles West Cope (1811-1890)was a landscape watercolourist as well as an oil painter. He was a friend of the collector John Sheepshanks who gave nine of Cope's works to the Museum. Nearly all his paintings were literary, biblical or historical subjects and domestic genre. He studied fresco painting in Italy and painted several frescos in the Palace of Westminster. Cope exhibited 134 works at the Royal Academy and in 1870 was appointed examiner in painting at the South Kensington Schools of Art, the forerunner of the Royal College of Art.
Oil paintings such as this with subjects taken from literature steadily replaced commissions for history paintings in the early 19th century. The public and most collectors of modern works started to prefer lighter and sometimes more sentimental themes.
Subjects Depicted
This painting is an illustration to John Milton's 1632 poem `Il Penseroso', an invocation to the goddess Melancholy, so that she might bring the poet a life of quiet study and meditation. `But hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy.' Like the poem, it is a companion to `L'Allegro', also described here.
A contemporary critic spoke of this painting as `The most profoundly sentimental figure that the artist has ever painted.'
People
Charles West Cope (1811-1890)was a landscape watercolourist as well as an oil painter. He was a friend of the collector John Sheepshanks who gave nine of Cope's works to the Museum. Nearly all his paintings were literary, biblical or historical subjects and domestic genre. He studied fresco painting in Italy and painted several frescos in the Palace of Westminster. Cope exhibited 134 works at the Royal Academy and in 1870 was appointed examiner in painting at the South Kensington Schools of Art, the forerunner of the Royal College of Art.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Il Penseroso (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | oil on panel |
| Brief description | Oil painting entitled 'Il Penseroso' by Charles West Cope. Great Britain, 1848. |
| Physical description | Oil painting |
| Dimensions |
|
| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'C W Cope/1848' (Signed and dated by the artist, lower right) |
| Gallery label | British Galleries:
Il Penseroso' was the poet Milton's celebration of the pleasures of melancholy solitude, in contrast to the gregarious pleasures celebrated in his companion poem 'L'Allegro'. Contemporary critics admired these two paintings by Charles West Cope for their strong colours and considered them 'profoundly sentimental', a term of high approval at the time.(27/03/2003) |
| Credit line | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857 |
| Object history | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. By Charles West Cope RA (born in Leeds, 1811, died in London, 1890) Exhibited at the Royal Academy 1848 |
| Production | Signed and dated 1848 |
| Literary reference | Milton, <i>Il Penseroso</i> |
| Summary | Object Type Oil paintings such as this with subjects taken from literature steadily replaced commissions for history paintings in the early 19th century. The public and most collectors of modern works started to prefer lighter and sometimes more sentimental themes. Subjects Depicted This painting is an illustration to John Milton's 1632 poem `Il Penseroso', an invocation to the goddess Melancholy, so that she might bring the poet a life of quiet study and meditation. `But hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy.' Like the poem, it is a companion to `L'Allegro', also described here. A contemporary critic spoke of this painting as `The most profoundly sentimental figure that the artist has ever painted.' People Charles West Cope (1811-1890)was a landscape watercolourist as well as an oil painter. He was a friend of the collector John Sheepshanks who gave nine of Cope's works to the Museum. Nearly all his paintings were literary, biblical or historical subjects and domestic genre. He studied fresco painting in Italy and painted several frescos in the Palace of Westminster. Cope exhibited 134 works at the Royal Academy and in 1870 was appointed examiner in painting at the South Kensington Schools of Art, the forerunner of the Royal College of Art. |
| Bibliographic reference | Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 49-50 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | FA.59[O] |
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| Record created | March 27, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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