LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

50.00 in. (127.00 cm.) (height) by 39.49 in. (100.30 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed and dated 'B. West / London. / 1775.' (center left below Christ's elbow)

Exhibited:

Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Johann Caspar Lavater: das Antlitz, eine Obsession, 9 February-22 April 2001, no. 428.

Literature:

J.C. Lavater, Physiognomische Fragmente, zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe, IV, Leipzig and Winterthur, 1778, pp. 450-451, illustrated. G.K. Nagler, Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon, XX, Munich, 1851, p. 324. F.O. Pestalozzi, 'J. C. Lavaters Kunstsammlung', Neujahrsblatt des Zuercher Waisenhauses, 1916. O. Clemen, 'Kunstgeschichtliches aus Mitau', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XCI, 1919, p. 244, no. 20. J. Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life's Work, with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter, Including a correlated version of early nineteenth-century lists of West's paintings, exhibitions, and sales records of his works, and also a current checklist of his major religious works, San Antonio, 1977, pp. 21, 211, pl. 11. 'Pipe and Tobacco', Apollo, CX, 1979, pp. 244, 249, fig. 2. C.P. Wistar, La Salle College Art Museum Guide to the Collection, Philadelphia, 1984, p. 88, fig. 33. H. von Erffa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven and London, 1986, pp. 339-340, no. 323, as possibly dated 1776.

Provenance:

Gift of the artist to Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801), Zurich, in 1777. Markgraf Carl-Friedrich von Baden (d. 1829), Karlsruhe, and by descent in the family to Elizabeth Albers-Schoenberg, Zurich; Sotheby's, London, 17 June 1970, lot 38, where acquired by the following with Leger Galleries, London. with Central Picture Galleries, New York, by 1972. with Old Hall Gallery, Ltd., Iden, Rye, where acquired by the La Salle University Art Museum in 1973.