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Inscription

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

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.

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.

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