{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O56548"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O56548/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN2304/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN2304/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AN2304","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC7985","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O56548/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O56548","accessionNumber":"FA.58[O]","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"L'Allegro","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>Oil paintings such as this with subjects taken from literature steadily replaced commissions for history paintings in the early 19th century. The public and most collectors of modern works started to prefer lighter and sometimes more sentimental themes.<br><br><b>Subjects Depicted</b><br>This painting is an illustration to John Milton's 1632 poem 'L'Allegro' where he is calling upon Euphrosyne, the goddess of Mirth 'So buxom, blithe and debonair'. The goddess is shown closing her ear with her hand against the counsels of love. It is a companion work to Cope's <i>Il Penseroso</i> also described here.<br><br><b>People</b><br>Charles West Cope (1811-1890) was a landscape watercolourist as well as an oil painter. He was a friend of the collector John Sheepshanks who gave nine of Cope's works to the Museum. Nearly all his paintings were literary, biblical or historical subjects and domestic genre. He studied fresco painting in Italy and painted several frescos in the Palace of Westminster.  Cope exhibited 134 works at the Royal Academy and in 1870 was appointed examiner in painting at the South Kensington Schools of Art, the forerunner of the Royal College of Art.","physicalDescription":"Oil painting","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Cope, Charles West (RA)","id":"A8279"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"panel","id":"AAT14657"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"oil on panel","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"British Galleries","id":"THES48985"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Victorian","id":"x29321"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AN2304","2017KC7985"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"122H (VA)","id":"THES49218"},"free":"","case":"WE","shelf":"","box":"9"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1848","earliest":"1848-01-01","latest":"1848-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"71.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"46.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"92.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"framed","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"70","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"framed","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions checked: Measured; 20/01/1999 by sf","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'C W Cope 1848'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed and dated by the artist, lower right"}],"objectHistory":"Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. By Charles West Cope RA (born in Leeds, 1811, died in London, 1890)\n\nExhibited at the Royal Academy 1848","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Oil painting entitled 'L'Allegro' by Charles West Cope.  Great Britain, 1848.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, <u>Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860</u>,  London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 48-49"}],"production":"Signed and dated 1848","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Milton, <i>L'Allegro</i>"],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"British Galleries:\nIllustrations from literature were popular subjects for modern British painters. This pair of paintings illustrates two poems written by John Milton in 1632. 'L'Allegro' celebrated the pleasures of the cheerful and sociable life, in contrast to melancholy solitude.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["FA.58[O]"],"accessionNumberNum":"58","accessionNumberPrefix":"FA","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LM5228","2019LP7361","2019LP6808","2019LR6622","2019LR5417","2019LV5109"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-23","recordCreationDate":"2001-03-05","availableToBook":false}}