{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O78271"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78271/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AK0217/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AK0217/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AK0217","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AK0218","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC7874","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O78271/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O78271","accessionNumber":"FA.59[O]","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"Il Penseroso","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 `Il Penseroso', an invocation to the goddess Melancholy, so that she might bring the poet a life of quiet study and meditation. `But hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy.'  Like the poem, it is a companion  to `L'Allegro', also described here.<br><br>A contemporary critic spoke of this painting as `The most profoundly sentimental figure that the artist has ever painted.'<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"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Victorian","id":"x29321"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AK0217","2006AK0218","2017KC7874"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"122H (VA)","id":"THES49218"},"free":"","case":"WE","shelf":"","box":"10"}],"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":"95","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 'Il Penseroso' 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. 49-50"}],"production":"Signed and dated 1848","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Milton, <i>Il Penseroso</i>"],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"British Galleries:\nIl Penseroso' was the poet Milton's celebration of the pleasures of melancholy solitude, in contrast to the gregarious pleasures celebrated in his companion poem 'L'Allegro'. Contemporary critics admired these two paintings by Charles West Cope for their strong colours and considered them  'profoundly sentimental', a term of high approval at the time.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["FA.59[O]"],"accessionNumberNum":"59","accessionNumberPrefix":"FA","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LM5887","2019LN2648","2019LP3028","2019LV7322","2019LV5797"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-25","recordCreationDate":"2003-03-27","availableToBook":false}}