Venus

model 1817/1820, carved c. 1822/1823

Antonio Canova

Sculptor, Italian, 1757 - 1822

A nearly nude woman is carved from cream-white marble in this freestanding sculpture. In this photograph, her body faces us, and she looks to our right in profile. She has a sloping forehead and straight nose, full, closed lips, and a rounded chin. Her curly hair is pulled back but ringlets fall down the back of her neck, and tendrils curl alongside her ears. She holds her left arm, to our right, across her torso so that hand brushes her right breast. She holds drapery to her groin with the other hand, and the cloth puddles behind her feet. She steps slightly forward onto her right leg but her knees are together so the toes of her left foot brush the round, disk-like base on which she stands. The background fades from nickel gray across the top to fog gray along the bottom.

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On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G45

Artwork overview

Associated Artworks

Pedestal for "Venus" after Canova

Thomas Hope

1822

More About this Artwork

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned c. 1822/1823 as a copy of the original (which he owned) by Thomas Hope [1769-1831], Deepdene, near Dorking, Surrey; by inheritance to his son, Henry Thomas Hope [1808-1862], Deepdene; by inheritance to his wife, Adele Bichat Hope [d. 1884]; by inheritance to her grandson, Henry Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton Hope, 8th duke of Newcastle-under Lyne [1866-1941], Deepdene;[1] sold c.1912 through (Charles Davis, London) to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] sold October 1912 to William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York;[3] bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] Deepdene was rented from Lord Francis Hope by Lilian Warren Price Hammersley [c. 1860/1865-1909], beginning in 1893 until her death there in 1909. She was the widow of the 8th duke of Marlborough, and later the wife of Lord William Beresford, and this fact accounts for the Duveen prospectus stating incorrectly that the sculpture was "from the Collection of the late Duchess of Marlborough." See letter of 7 February 1978, from Douglas Lewis, NGA curator of sculpture, to Miranda Strickland-Constable, curator at the Leeds City Art Gallery, England, in NGA curatorial files. The gallery in Leeds now owns the original sculpture by Canova from which Hope had the Corcoran/NGA copy made.
[2] The sculpture was stock number 33147 in the records of Duveen's London branch, and it was given this description in its first entry, for September 1912: "1 life size white marble statue of Venus on pedestal. Signed A. Canova. from the Colln the late Duchess of Marlborough. Blenheim Palace." The source was noted as "C. Davis," who was the dealer Charles Davis (1849-1914), and the cost was 1200 pounds. The sculpture appears again in the next stock book, with nearly the identical description, listed under September-October 1912. See: Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: London Stock Book no. 19, August 1911-September 1912, box 69, reel 25; and London Stock Book no. 20, August 1912-September 1913, box 70, reel 25; copies in NGA curatorial files. The sculpture does not appear in London stock book numbers 17, 18, or 21.
[3] See the correspondence from 1912 and 1913 between Clark and Duveen Brothers in Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II.E, Correspondence, Ci-Cl, 1912-1945, box 356, reel 211, folder 5, copies in NGA curatorial files. At that time, Duveen Brothers was unable to give Clark an accurate history of the sculpture.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1978

  • The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 26 April - 16 July 1978, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1925

  • Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 40.

1972

  • Honour, Hugh. "Canova's Statues of Venus." The Burlington Magazine 114, no. 835 (October 1972): 667 n. 66.

1978

  • Lewis, Douglas. “The Clark Copy of Antonio Canova’s Hope Venus in Washington, Corcoran Gallery of Art.” The William A. Clark Collection. Exh. cat. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978: 105-115.

2008

  • Watkin, David, and Philip Hewat-Jaboor, eds. Thomas Hope: Regency Designer. Exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York. New Haven and London, 2008: 142 fig. 8-14, 143-144, 149 nn. 69 and 70.

2013

  • Bindman, David. “Thomas Hope as Collector of Canova." G. Ericani and F. Mazzocca , eds. Committenti e collezionisti di Canova. Atti dellla VIII settimana di Studi Canoviani, Studi Neoclassici (2013): 170-173.

2022

  • Costarelli, Alessio. Canova e gli Inglesi. Milan, 2022: 184-187, 267.

Inscriptions

on side of circular base: A.CANOVA. I.

Wikidata ID

Q63863538

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