The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Paris and Oenone

Paris and Oenone

1791
(British, 1755–1826)
Sheet: 30.3 x 48.8 cm (11 15/16 x 19 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 35.1 x 53.6 cm (13 13/16 x 21 1/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

John Flaxman called his drawings "outlines," referring to their sparse style.

Description

Although he identified himself first and foremost as a sculptor, John Flaxman’s greatest fame and most lasting influence rest with his drawings. Engravings made after his spare designs illustrating classical epics by Homer, Dante, and Hesiod became the most celebrated work in his oeuvre and spread his stylized linearity widely. This highly finished, signed and dated drawing was made while Flaxman was in Rome and needed to supplement his income while trying to obtain commissions for sculpture. Flaxman chose an obscure classical subject: the famous Trojan shepherd, Paris, with his first love, the nymph Oenone. The scene takes place on Mount Ida, in an idyllic time of peace before Paris was called upon to judge the beauty of the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, thus instigating the Trojan War.
  • ?-?
    Marquis de Lagoy [1764-1829; L. 1710]
    ?-?
    By repute, from a member of the William Randolph Hearst family
    ?-?
    (Alexander Acevedo, Alexander Gallery, New York, NY)
    ?-?
    Private Collector, New York, NY
    ?-2008
    (Monroe Warshaw, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2008-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lemonedes, Heather. "'Graceful in the Extreme': A Neoclassical Drawing by John Flaxman," Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (Summer 2012). Mentioned and reproduced www.19thc-artworldwide.org
    Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned: pp. 46-47, 145, no. 12; Reproduced: p. 47
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 160
  • British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
  • {{cite web|title=Paris and Oenone|url=false|author=John Flaxman|year=1791|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.35