APOLLO AND ARTEMIS
stamped with collector mark T.H. (Lugt 2432) and the eye cypher (Lugt 2793) lower left
pencil, pen and brown ink and wash on paper
26 x 46.5cm; 10 1/4 x 18 1/4in
53.5 x 66cm; 21 x 26in (framed)

Property from a Private Collection, Kew

Provenance
Thomas Hudson, London (Lugt 2432). In his day Hudson (British, 1701-1779) was the leading portrait painter in London. He counted Joshua Reynolds among his students.
Nathaniel Hone RA, London (Lugt 2793). Hone (Irish, 1718-1784) was a portraitist and miniature painter and a founding member of the Royal Academy.
The Manning Galleries Ltd, London
Edgar Seaton Hyde, Cheshire (acquired from the above in the 1960s)
Thence by descent

In the present work Apollo rides through the sky silhouetted against the sun opposite his twin sister Artemis, her head profiled against the moon and in the company of a group of chaste nymphs. Sagittarius in the form of a centaur is to Apollo's right. The subject derives from the top section of the etching by Pietro Testa (1611-1650), of the Allegory of Autumn. Not shown in the present work, but present in the lower part of Testa's etching, a drunken Silenus with the god Pan leads a lustful parade of satyrs and centaurs to honour the return of Bacchus from his travels through India.