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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.329
People
Benjamin West, American (Springfield, PA 1738 - 1820 London, England)
Title
Fidelia and Speranza
Other Titles
Former Title: The Sisters
Former Title: Two Muses
Former Title: Faith and Hope
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1784
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/307931

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor and brown ink on cream laid paper
Dimensions
53 x 40.3 cm (20 7/8 x 15 7/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: brown ink, l.l.: B. West 1784

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Scott & Fowles, New York, NY, sold to Grenville L. Winthrop, 1920; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.329
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Description
This drawing illustrates stanzas XII-XIV, Book I, Canto X of Edmund Spenser's poem "The Faerie Queene." It is a study for an oil painting which is now in the Putnam Collection at the Timken Museum, San Diego, CA.

Publication History

  • The Connoisseur (New York, NY, February 1918), ill. opp. p. 63
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 132, cat. 93, ill. p. 133
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 14, ill.
  • Marjorie B. Cohn, Wash and Gouache: A Study of the Development of the Materials of Watercolor, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 71, 110, no. 63
  • Timken Art Gallery : European and American Works of Art in the Putnam Foundation Collection, Putnam Foundation (San Diego, CA, 1983), no. 42
  • Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1986), p. 403, no. 222
  • Timken Museum of Art, Timken Museum of Art : European Works of Art, American Paintings, and Russian Icons in the Putnam Foundation Collection, Putnam Foundation (San Diego, CA, 1996), p. 209, fig. 1
  • Derrick Randall Cartwright, Benjamin West: Allegory and Allegiance, exh. cat., Timken Museum of Art (San Diego, CA, 2004), p. 26, fig. 23
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 516-17, cat. 484, ill.

Exhibition History

  • Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/23/1969 - 03/31/1969
  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Wash and Gouache: A Study of the Development of the Materials of Watercolor, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/12/1977 - 06/22/1977
  • 32Q: 2240 18th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/25/2022 - 09/12/2022

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu