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Charles Le Brun , French, 1619-1690

Title

Apollo Taking Leave of Tethis

Datec.1650

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

102 x 132 cm

Credit LinePresented, 1977

Object numberNGI.4197

ProvenanceJames Adam & Sons, Dublin, 1946/7; Private Collection; presented, Private Collection, 1977Exhibition HistoryLe Classicisme Francais, masterpieces of 17th century painting, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 30 April - 9 June 1985

Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016

Label TextApollo leaves the beautiful Thetis at dawn, to ride the chariot of the sun across the sky. She was a Nereid, the wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles. It remained a popular subject in eighteenth-century France, given the opportunity to depict the nude. This is a sketch for a lost octagonal ceiling painting originally in the home of Jérôme de Nouveau, Superintendant General of Posts in Paris. It was clearly chosen here as an allusion to King Louis XIV’s identification with Apollo.