Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus
Artist: Benjamin West (American, active Great Britain, 1738–1820)
1768
American Paintings and Sculpture
This painting exemplifies a reawakened interest in the noble values of classical antiquity—stoicism, self-sacrifice, generosity, patriotism—that influenced artists and writers as well as politicians in the second half of the eighteenth century. It brought the Pennsylvania-born Benjamin West, who was working in London, immediate praise and the patronage of King George III. West here depicts a dramatic episode from Roman history. Agrippina, widow of the assassinated and much-admired general Germanicus, is seen arriving with the ashes of her slain husband. Crowds of mourning citizens greet her as she starts on her way to confront the Emperor Tiberius, widely believed to have arranged for Germanicus’s murder. To further his reference to antiquity, West modeled the central group on the Ara Pacis, the recently excavated Roman sacrificial altar, and painted the figures in cool whites, as if they too were carved in marble. Contemporary viewers would have recognized this classical allusion.
- Medium
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Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
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64 1/2 × 94 1/2 in. (163.8 × 240 cm)
- Credit Line
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Gift of Louis M. Rabinowitz
- Accession Number
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1947.16
- Geography
- Culture
- Period
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18th century
- Classification
- Disclaimer
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Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.
Provenance
Provenance
Dr. Robert Drummond, Archbishop of York, from 1768; Drummond family; E. and A. Silberman Galleries, New York, about 1947; Louis M. Rabinowitz, New York, about 1947; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.Bibliography
- American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023), 24, 56–57, no. 9, ill.
- Gary Tinterow et al., American Adversaries West and Copley in a Transatlantic World, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2013), vii, fig. 1
- Amy Galpin et al., Behold, America!, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 2012), 118, fig. fig. 53
- Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, ed. Sarah Touborg (Boston: Laurence King Publishing Ltd., 2012), 55
- Michelle Facos, An Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Art (New York: Routledge, 2011), 29, fig. 2.2
- Douglas Fordham, British Art and the Seven Years' War: Allegiance and Autonomy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 206, fig. 72
- Angela L. Miller et al., American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2008), 125, fig. 4.33
- Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 390, fig. 1
- Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 132–33, fig. 131
- Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986), 179–80, no. 33
- Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. and Galina Gorokhoff, A Checklist of American Paintings at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982), 166, no. 1739, ill.
- Robert C. Alberts, Benjamin West: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1978), 84-89
- Frederick J Cummings, Allen Staley, and Robert Rosenblum, Romantic Art in Britain: Paintings and Drawings, 1760-1860, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Falcon Press, 1968), 98-99
- Robert Rosenblum, Transformations in Late Eighteenth-Century Art (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967), 42-43
- David Irwin, English Neoclassical Art (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1966), 50, 80
- Allen Staley, "The Landing of Agrippina at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus," Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 61 (1965-66), 10-19
- Charles Seymour, "Louis Mayer Rabinowitz," Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University 23 (September 1957), 14, fig. 8
- James Thomas Flexner, "Benjamin West's American Neo-Classicism," New York Historical Society Quarterly 36 (1952), 32-33
- James Thomas Flexner, "The American School in London," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 7 (1948), 64-67
- James Thomas Flexner, America's Old Master's: First Artists of the New World (New York: Viking Press, 1939), 57-61
- Horace Walpole and Hugh Gatty, "Notes by Horace Walpole, Fourth Earl of Orford, on the Exhibitions of the Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists, 1760–1791," Walpole Society 27 (1938–39), 81
- Jean Locquin, La Peinture d'histoire en France de 1747 a 1785 (Paris: H. Laurens, 1912), 154, 156
- William Carey, "Memoirs of Benjamin West, Esq. Late President of the Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, in London," New Monthly Magazine 13 (1820), 690
- John Galt, The Life and Works of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy of London, Prior to His Arrival in England: Compiled from Material Furnished by Himself... Part II (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1820), 11-13, 21-26
Object copyright
Additional information
Object/Work type
Signed
Signed lower center "B. West PINXIT: 1768"Technical metadata and APIs
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