Lot 14: HENRY THOMSON, R.A. 1773-1843

a pair, both oil on canvas

Quantity: 2

each 239 by 145 cm., 94 by 57 in.

Royal Academy, 1806 and 1808, nos.5 and 98 respectively

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Acquired directly from the artist for £84 and £126 in 1806 and 1808 respectively, and thence by family descent

When Love Sheltered was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806 it was accompanied by the following lines of poetry:

'It's a cold rainy night, and I'm wet to the skin,
And I have lost my way, Ma'am, so pray let me in'

Love's Ingratitude was accompanied by the lines:

'Protected from the beating shower
His torpid limbs regain their power;
His wings, which, colourless and lank,
Hung like wet weeds adown a bank,
Now swell, and own their nature dye,
The bow its elasticity, etc.'

Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet born at Teos in Ionia circa 563 BC. His poems are devoted almost entirely to the pleasures of love and wine, and Thomson's use of them as an inspiration for the present works represents the beginnings of the Romantic movement. These two dramatic compositions were engraved by Macklin and may have been intended as illustrations for Macklin's Lives of the Poets. Henry Thomson was a painter of large scale history and genre scenes, and he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1792 and 1825. Many of his works were accompanied by lines of poetry, often from Shakespeare, but occasionally even by verse composed by Thomson himself. Thomson studied under John Opie and was elected as Keeper of the RA between 1825-27. Two further works by Thomson will be offered in the British sale.