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Mar 29, 2007

Jul 30, 2013

Jul 22, 2013

Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus

c. 1670

Gerard de Lairesse

(Flemish, 1641–1711)

Netherlands, 17th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 118.5 x 140 x 9 cm (46 5/8 x 55 1/8 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 91.4 x 113.7 cm (36 x 44 3/4 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1992.2

Location

not on view

Did you know?

Calypso, reclining on her bed, looks at us with the same charming smile she used on Odysseus.

Description

The Greek goddess Calypso held the hero Odysseus captive for seven years, preventing his return home from the Trojan War. Despite Calypso’s charms and the luxurious surroundings, Odysseus longed for his home and family, so the Olympian gods finally allowed his freedom. Here, the god Hermes swoops down to free Odysseus from Calypso’s embrace. De Lairesse, popularly known as the “Dutch Poussin,” introduced to the Netherlands a classicizing style influenced by artists of the French Academy.

Provenance

Until 1946

Thomas Wodehouse Legh, 2nd Baron Newton [1857-1942], Cheshire, upon his death, probably held in trust by the estate ¹

1946

(Sale, Sotheby’s London, July 17, 1946, lot 63, sold to Julius Singer)1 ²

1946-

(Julius Singer, London, probably sold to a Rio de Janeiro private collector) ³

Until 1991

Private collection, Rio de Janeiro

1991

(Christie’s, New York, sale, Oct. 9, 1991, lot 195, sold to Johnny van Haeften, Ltd.)

1991-1992

(Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1992-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Provenance Footnotes

¹The 1946 Sotheby’s auction catalogue includes this painting as part of the property of the “Rt. Hon. Lord Newton.” The Right Honourable Lord Newton was Thomas Wodehouse Legh, who died in 1942 [b. 1857]. His oldest son, Richard Legh, presented Lyme Park, the family’s estate, to the National Trust in 1946, and in October of that year, a portion of the library at Lyme Park was sold at auction. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to think that he may also have sold paintings from his father’s collection at auction that same year.

²The auction catalogue attributes the painting to [Jacques] Blanchard and titles it “Mars and Venus.” However, the dimensions are the same as those of the CMA painting, and Johnny van Haeften did identify the two paintings as one and the same, in terms of both their compositions and provenances.

³The price list inserted into the Sotheby’s sale catalogue identifies the buyer of the painting as “Singer,” and Johnny van Haeften situated the painting with a “J. Singer” prior to the Rio de Janeiro collector. The file on the painting in the RKD image database identifies him as Julius Singer, an art dealer in London.

Citations

Johnny van Haeften, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 16, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

Jeff Pilkington, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, June 3, 2013, in CMA curatorial file.

Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc. Old Master Paintings. New York: Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc, 1991.

Jeff Pilkington, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, June 3, 2013, in CMA curatorial file.

Sotheby's (Firm). Fine Pictures and Drawings. 1946.

"RKD Images," Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images#query=, accessed March 23, 2015.

Sotheby's (Firm). Fine Pictures and Drawings. 1946.

Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993): 38-79. Reproduced: p. 55; Mentioned: p. 66 www.jstor.org

Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012. Reproduced: p. 44 - 45

Exhibition history

Exhib.: CMA 1993: "Selected Acquisitions," Bull., 80 (Feb., 1993), p. 55, repr.
MFA Boston, 1993: "The Age of Rubens," cat. no. 132, repr. (also to: Toledo (OH), Museum of Art)
Approved: Trustees' Minutes 12/7/1992

Selected Acquisitions, CMA, January 28-April 26, 1992: (The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 1993, cat. no. 23, repr.)
The Age of Rubens, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, September 22, 1993-January 2, 1994; Toledo Museum of Art, February 2-April 24, 1994:cat. no. 132, repr.

Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.2|author=Gerard de Lairesse|year=c. 1670|access-date=27 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus

Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus

Gerard de Lairesse

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