Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Diana and Endymion

Anthony van Dyck
1599-1641

Diana and Endymion

ca. 1625-1627
7 1/2 x 9 inches (190 x 228 mm)
Pen and brown ink and wash, with white opaque watercolor, on blue laid paper, faded to green gray.
I, 240

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
Watermark: none.
In this vivacious drawing, van Dyck tried out two different compositions--one on the upper right and one at center--for the classical myth of Diana and Endymion. The goddess Diana, identified here by the crescent moon on her head, fell in love with the shepherd Endymion and had him cast into an eternal sleep so that she could visit and admire him every night. In the first sketch at center, with its virtuoso whirlwind of lines, van Dyck was particularly successful at simultaneously capturing the movement of the goddess's swirling draperies and Endymion's peaceful slumber. The profound influence of Italian models, including a fresco by Annibale Carracci at the Palazzo Farnese, and antique sculptures, suggests that van Dyck created this drawing while he was in Italy. -- Exhibition Label, from "Power and Grace: Drawings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens"
Associated names
Ottley, William Young, 1771-1836, former owner.
Philipe, T., former owner.
Woodburn, Samuel, 1785 or 1786-1853 former owner.
Lawrence, Thomas, Sir, 1769-1830, former owner.
Seymour, H. Danby, former owner.
Vos Jacobszoon, Jacob de, 1803-1878, former owner.
Thibaudeau, former owner.
Haden, Francis Seymour, 1818-1910, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Tuinen, Ilona van. Power and Grace : Drawings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens. New York : Morgan Library & Museum, 2018, no. 8 (repr.)
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912 I, 240, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, with the assistance of Ruth S. Kraemer and Jane Shoaf Turner. Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1991, p. 122, no. 269 (repr.).
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 41, p. 90-91.
100 Master drawings from the Morgan Library & Museum. München : Hirmer, 2008, no. 52, repr. [Jennifer Tonkovich]
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department