George Romney,  British 1734-1802-  Study for 'The Temptati

Lot description

George Romney, British 1734-1802- Study for 'The Temptation of Christ'; black chalk on paper, bears collector's stamp for Xavier Haas [L.4541] (lower right), bears inscription 'G. Romney / The Temptation of Christ 1793 / See Hayley 229-231... Paradise Regained / Book IV / Lines / 422' to the backing paper, 13.9 x 19.5 cm. Provenance: The Collection of Xavier Haas (1876-1937). with Colnaghi & Co., 1953, according to the inscription to the reverse of the frame. Private Collection, UK. Note: We are grateful to Alex Kidson for confirming the authenticity of the present work. The present work is one of a number of preparatory sketches which Romney produced for his painting of the 'Temptation of Christ', which was never completed, and the whereabouts of which are currently unknown. According to Romney's biographer William Hayley, the subject was suggested to Romney by Hayley's own son, Thomas, who was inspired by a passage in Milton's Paradise Regained which reads: 'Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round Environ’d thee; some howl’d; some yell’d, some shriek’d Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou Sat’st unappall’d in calm and sinless peace.' Romney produced various studies of the same composition, featuring the figure of Christ seated in the lower right, with the 'fiends of Satan' swirling around him. Other examples include those which are held in the collection of the Yale Centre for British Art [YCBA/lido-TMS-6594; B1979.12.266], which also bear the same collector's stamp as the present work. Xavier Haas assembled a remarkable collection of Romney drawings at the end of the 19th century. He and his partner, Émile Gross, owned up to 2,000 drawings, which they did not purchase in London in 1894 at the sale of the artist's granddaughter, Elizabeth, but shortly thereafter from English dealers, notably Humphrey Ward, Duveen, Colnaghi, and Fairfax Murray. Haas enlisted Robert René Meyer Sée to identify and catalogue drawings from their collection. Meyer Sée had collaborated with Humphrey Ward and William Roberts on the publication 'Romney: A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works', 2 vols. (London, 1904). Haas and Gross organised the first Romney exhibition, 'Romney and Shakespeare', in November 1913 at their Paris gallery on Rue Edouard VII.