Permanent Collection Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
1957.10656 |
Collection |
Painting Collection |
Title |
Epic of the Sea |
Date |
Circa 1819 |
Artist |
School of Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) |
Description |
The artist who painted "Epic of the Sea," a turbulent nineteenth-century seascape depicting the horror of being stranded at sea after a shipwreck, is still not known. In 1957, the painting was donated to the Zanesville Art Institute by an anonymous benefactor. The deal was brokered by Mortimer Brandt, a well-known and respected art dealer of 15th-18th century paintings and works of art whose gallery was located on East 57th Street in New York. In a letter dated December 3, 1957, Brandt stated that "I have some very good news for the Institute. A client of mine…is letting me give away a wonderful museum painting, "An Epic of the Sea" by Gericault…I suggested that he give it to the Art Institute in Zanesville." The artist Brandt referred to was French Romanticist Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), perhaps best known for the "Raft of the Medusa," which also depicts a shipwreck and desperate souls lost at sea. Yet Brandt's attribution was not and still cannot be confirmed. Three years before the painting was donated to the ZMA, the work of art appeared in an article published in the 1954 edition of Burlington Magazine, a prestigious English scholarly art journal, written by renowned art historian Benedict Nicolson, incidentally the son of Lady Nicholson, Vita Sackville-West. Nicolson attributed "Epic of the Sea," or "Scene of Shipwreck," as it was called in the article, to the American artist John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). In another article, this time dating from 1959, the painting was again attributed to Copley. Why did Mortimer Brandt attribute this work to Géricault when scholars attributed it to Copley? Today, this work is thought to have been painted by artists or students affiliated with one of these artist's studios but a firm attribution has not been made. |
Medium |
Oil, Canvas |
Technique |
Painted |
Height (in) |
45.000 |
Width (in) |
3.000 |
Length (in) |
71.000 |
Culture |
French |
School |
Romanticism |
Place of Origin |
Paris, France |
Credit Line |
Gift from an Anonymous Donor |
People |
Brandt, Mortimer |
Search Terms |
European Art European Artists European Paintings Figures, Men Figures, Women Nudes Oceans Oil Paintings Paintings Romanticism Sails Ships Shipwrecks Sky Water |
Location |
On view in the Shirley Gorsuch Gallery, 1st Floor |