€2,500
Attributed Nathaniel Dance (1735-1811)
"The Raising of Lazarus," oil sketch on canvas, laid on panel, approx 50 cms h x 66 w cms w ( 19 ½” x 26”).
Dating from the late eighteenth century, this oil on canvas, laid on a wood panel, bears an original label on the reverse, reading “The Raising of Lazarus - Sketch by James Barry 1789”. While there is no record of Barry undertaking a painting on this subject, in 1773 he was one of a number of artists participating in a scheme to decorate with murals St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Sir Joshua Reynolds, initiator of the project, chose as his subject the Virgin and Christ in the Manger, Benjamin West elected for Christ Raising the Young Man from the Dead, while Barry planned to depict Christ before Pilate. Other artists participating included Angelica Kaufmann, Giovanni Batista Cipriani and Nathaniel Dance. The subject chosen by Dance for his sketch was The Raising of Lazarus. In the 1860’s both Barry and Dance had been young aspiring artists in Rome. A year after Barry’s death in 1806, Christies held a sale of the contents of his studio. It can be conjectured that this painting formed part of that sale, and so was mistakenly identified as being by Barry. Sketches by Dance in the V&A and Tate and support a tentative attribution of this interesting oil sketch to that artist.
Dr. Peter Murray, 2022
Some minor wear to edges of board otherwise good condition
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