Il Penseroso, Charles West Cope, 1848
Charles West Cope, portrætCharles West CopeStorbritannien, 1811–1890

Il Penseroso

1848 · Oil painting · 71.1 × 46.4 cm

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Hvor er »Il Penseroso« i dag? Victoria and Albert Museum, British Galleries, Room 122, London. Ja, udstillet nu. Kontrolleret 25. september 2026.

Victoria and Albert Museum

London, Storbritannien

SalBritish Galleries, Room 122

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Object Type

Oil paintings such as this with subjects taken from literature steadily replaced commissions for history paintings in the early 19th century. The public and most collectors of modern works started to prefer lighter and sometimes more sentimental themes.

Subjects Depicted

This painting is an illustration to John Milton's 1632 poem `Il Penseroso', an invocation to the goddess Melancholy, so that she might bring the poet a life of quiet study and meditation. `But hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy.' Like the poem, it is a companion to `L'Allegro', also described here.

A contemporary critic spoke of this painting as `The most profoundly sentimental figure that the artist has ever painted.'

People

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Charles West Cope (1811-1890)was a landscape watercolourist as well as an oil painter. He was a friend of the collector John Sheepshanks who gave nine of Cope's works to the Museum. Nearly all his paintings were literary, biblical or historical subjects and domestic genre. He studied fresco painting in Italy and painted several frescos in the Palace of Westminster. Cope exhibited 134 works at the Royal Academy and in 1870 was appointed examiner in painting at the South Kensington Schools of Art, the forerunner of the Royal College of Art.

Victoria and Albert Museum

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FA.59[O]

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I samme sal · British Galleries, Room 122, Victoria and Albert Museum

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