Not on display
- Artist
- Richard Westall 1765–1836
- Medium
- Oil paint on wood
- Dimensions
- Support: 1270 × 1010 mm
frame: 1472 × 1240 × 94 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1956
- Reference
- T00088
Display caption
In Greek legend, the beautiful Helen was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Her affair with the Trojan prince, Paris, led to the Trojan War.Westall painted this picture for Thomas Hope, a fabulously wealthy collector of the antique and of selected contemporary art. Hope’s taste ran from strict neo-classicism to Romantic exoticism. The rooms of his London house were furnished and decorated to reflect various regions of the ancient world – Egypt and India as well as Greece and Rome. Westall modelled the figure of Helen on a Greek statue in Hope’s collection.
Gallery label, May 2007
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- emotions, concepts and ideas(16,531)
-
- emotions and human qualities(5,350)
-
- love(512)
- clothing and personal items(5,879)
-
- armour(107)
- stool(113)
- actions: expressive(2,631)
-
- embracing(425)
- female(1,664)
- Helen of Troy(2)
- Paris(6)
You might like
-
Robert Smirke Don Quixote at Home, after the Termination of his Second Sally
date not known -
Richard Westall Philip Sansom, Jun., as a Child
date not known -
Richard Westall a) An Old Man by a Fireside and a Servant Girl. Burns
date not known -
Sir Thomas Lawrence Homer Reciting his Poems
1790 -
Thomas Stothard Lord William Russell Taking Leave of his Children
date not known -
Henry Fuseli Titania and Bottom
c.1790 -
Benjamin Marshall Sir Charles Bunbury with Cox, his Trainer, and a Stable-Lad: A Study for ‘Surprise and Eleanor’
?1801 -
Thomas Stothard Peace Came Down upon the Earth
date not known -
Thomas Stothard A Nymph Sleeping
date not known -
Richard Westall c) A Young Man and a Dog. Cowper
date not known -
Thomas Stothard Intemperance: Mark Antony and Cleopatra
c.1802, ?exhibited 1805 -
Thomas Stothard Nymphs and Satyrs
date not known -
After John Flaxman Ulysses and his Dog
1805 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Venus and the Dead Adonis
?c.1805 -
William Blake Lamech and his Two Wives
1795