Penelope Unraveling Her Web

Object Details

Title:

Penelope Unraveling Her Web

Artist/Maker:

Joseph Wright of Derby (English, 1734 - 1797)

Culture:

English

Date:

1783–1784

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Object Number:

87.PA.49

Dimensions:

106 × 131.4 cm (41 3/4 × 51 3/4 in.)

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The potter Josiah Wedgwood commissioned this painting from Joseph Wright of Derby as a tribute to female loyalty and industry. In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope, awaiting the return of her husband Odysseus from the Trojan War, was beset by suitors who claimed that Odysseus had been shipwrecked. She promised to marry one of them after she completed a shroud for her father-in-law. Steadfastly loyal to her absent husband, Penelope unraveled her weaving at the end of each day to avoid remarrying.

Wright presented Penelope late at night, rewinding her thread into a ball. In the foreground, the backlit statue of Odysseus invokes his presence. Moonlight bathes the sleeping figure of their son Telemachus while Penelope looks on. The strong effect of light and dark contributes to the hushed atmosphere and increases the drama of Penelope's plight.

Provenance
1784/1785 - 1795

Josiah Wedgwood, English, 1730 - 1795, master 1778 (Etruria, Stafford, England), commissioned from the artist, 1784/1785; by inheritance within the Wedgwood family, 1795.

1795 -

Wedgwood Family, by inheritance to Mr. and Mrs. Hensleigh Cecil Wedgwood.

- 1987

Mr. Hensleigh Cecil Wedgwood, 1908 - 1992 (New York, New York)

- 1987

and Mrs. Hensleigh Cecil Wedgwood (New York, New York) [sold, Wedgwood sale, Christie's, London, April 24, 1987, lot 106, to the J. Paul Getty Museum.]

Exhibitions
Pictures Painted by J. Wright, of Derby (1785)
  • Mr. Robins's Rooms (London), 1785
European Museum 1814 Exhibition (1814)
  • Unknown, 1814
European Museum 1817 Exhibition (1817)
  • Unknown, 1817
Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734 - 1797 (January 1955)
  • Smith College Museum of Art (Northampton), January 1955 -
Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734 - 1797 (March 1 to March 26, 1960)
  • Durlacher Brothers (New York), March 1 to March 26, 1960
Joseph Wright of Derby (February 7 to November 25, 1990)
  • Tate Britain (London), February 7 to April 22, 1990
  • Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (Paris), May 17 to July 23, 1990
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), September 6 to November 25, 1990
L'Antiquité rêvée: Innovations et résistances au XVIIIe siècle (December 2, 2010 to May 30, 2011)
  • Musée du Louvre (Paris), December 2, 2010 to February 14, 2011
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 20 to May 30, 2011
Bibliography

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Wilson, John, ed. The New Descriptive Catalogue and Plan of the European Museum, exh. cat. (London: G. Smeeton, 1814), p. 27, no. 432.

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Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734-1797, exh. cat. (Northampton: Smith College Museum of Art, 1955), unpaginated, no. 13.

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