Paris and Oenone

1791

Paris and Oenone, 1791. John Flaxman (British, 1755–1826). Brush and gray wash with pen and pale gray-black ink with graphite and brown ink; sheet: 30.3 x 48.8 cm (11 15/16 x 19 3/16 in.); secondary support: 35.1 x 53.6 cm (13 13/16 x 21 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2008.35 Although he identified himself first and foremost as a sculptor, John Flaxman’s greatest fame and most lasting influence rest with his drawings. Engravings made after his spare designs illustrating classical epics by Homer, Dante, and Hesiod became the most celebrated work in his oeuvre and spread his stylized linearity widely. This highly finished, signed and dated drawing was made while Flaxman was in Rome and needed to supplement his income while trying to obtain commissions for sculpture. Flaxman chose an obscure classical subject: the famous Trojan shepherd, Paris, with his first love, the nymph Oenone. The scene takes place on Mount Ida, in an idyllic time of peace before Paris was called upon to judge the beauty of the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, thus instigating the Trojan War. John Flaxman called his drawings "outlines," referring to their sparse style.