The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney
| The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Benjamin West |
| Year | 1806 |
| Type | Oil on canvas, history painting |
| Dimensions | 198.1 cm × 157.4 cm (78.0 in × 62.0 in) |
| Location | |
The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney is an 1806 history painting by the Anglo-American artist Benjamin West. [1] It features a reimagining of the ultimately mortal wounding of the English writer Philip Sidney at the 1586 Battle of Zutphen during the Eighty Years' War. Sidney, a celebrated Elizabethan era poet, had volunteered with other Englishman to fight alongside the Dutch in their war against Spain. With Heroic stoicism, he is shown saying that a drink of water offered to him should be given to nearby man whose need was greater than his. Sidney subsequently died of his wounds in Arnhem and received a large public burial at Saint Paul's Cathedral.
The picture is part of a tradition of noble death scenes produced by West. [2] The painting was commissioned by Alexander Davison, a military contactor during the Napoleonic Wars. Stylistically it was more in line with emerging Romanticism than the Neoclassicism with which the artist has become famous decades earlier. West included a self-portrait of himself on the far right of the picture. The painting is today in the collection of the Woodmere Art Museum in West's native Pennsylvania. [3]
References
- ↑ Schantz p.7
- ↑ Murray p.1216
- ↑ https://woodmeremuseum.org/collection/the-fatal-wounding-of-sir-philip-sidney
Bibliography
- Murray, Christopher John. Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850, Volume 2. Taylor & Francis, 2004.
- Schantz, Michael W. Celebrating Philadelphia's Artistic Legacy. Woodmere Art Museum, 2019.