Benjamin West
Noah Sacrificing

Public Domain

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Artist Benjamin West (American, active England, 1738–1820)American, active England, 1738–1820

CultureAmerican

Titles

Noah Sacrificing

Dateprobably 1797–1801

Made inLondon, England

MediumPen, ink, and sepia wash on paper

DimensionsSheet: 4 5/16 × 8 1/2 in. (10.9 × 21.6 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg

Object numberB.67.25

Not on view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

DRAWINGS, PASTELS & WATERCOLORS

Description

This gestural sketch is thought to be a study for Noah Sacrificing (c. 1801, San Antonio Museum of Art), a scene included in West’s mural commission for the unrealized royal chapel at Windsor on the subject of revealed religion. Noah, standing before an altar with upraised hands, is surrounded by loosely drawn people and animals.

Related examples: Two drawings by West on the subject of Noah Sacrificing, one in black chalk, one in pen and ink, date to the 1790s, the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.

ProvenanceMr. and Mrs. Lawrence A. Fleischman, Detroit; [Kennedy Galleries, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1967; given to MFAH.
Exhibition History"American Drawings, Pastels and Watercolors, Part One: Works of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries," Kennedy Galleries, New York, March 14–April 28, 1967, no.4.

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed on recto, below image, in pencil: Noah's Sacrifice: a sketch by B. West. P.R.A.

Inscribed on verso, in ink: Benn[last n superscript]: West Esqr[r superscript]: / No[o superscript]:14 Newman St[t superscript]

[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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