87

British School
(19th Century)

"An Allegorical Depiction of Hope"

oil on canvas
signed "Conti" lower right.
Presented in an oval-aperture antique gesso and carved giltwood frame.
56" x 40", framed 68-1/2" x 53"

Provenance: Sold in these rooms May 30, 2015, lot 46; Private collection.

Notes: "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and steadfast."
--Hebrews 6:19

The anchor as hope is a distinctly Christian symbol, used by the earliest adherents of the new religion in their mortuary carvings and catacomb decorations. These depictions were either non-figural or included stylized fish. The Victorian period, with its fascination with the dichotomy of vice and virtue and love of historic symbolism, saw a re-emergence of the anchor in illustrations, paintings, and sculpture. These 19th-century allegorical scenes, however, almost always incorporate the vaguely Classical figure of a woman holding or leaning upon an anchor, often against a seascape. The exceptional example offered here, with its color palette of rich, lush emerald greens, turquoises and teals, poses its Classically draped, wind-torn figure atop a rocky precipice against the stormy British seas.


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