768. Atlas: the Second Study by Charles Shannon at the National Gallery of Art

Last week, this blog featured two drawings by Charles Shannon held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The museum has now sent me an image of the second drawing, a study of the mythological figure Atlas. The drawing is in graphite on tracing paper with the watermark of Canson & Montgolfier. Measurements are 26.6 x 21.9 cm.

Charles Shannon, study of Atlas
[National Gallery of Art, Washington DC]
[Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication]

The original owner of this study was Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950), a mining engineer who, to quote the British Museum database, 'made a fortune as a director of the Naraguta Tin Mine and other mining companies in Nigeria'. He was a captain in WWI, and later turned collector and art historian. He formed major collections of Old Master drawings, Oriental porcelain and Renaissance ceramics. 

Ricketts, Shannon and Reitlinger may have met, although there is no evidence. However, in March 1914, Ricketts supported a proposition by Reitlinger for moving a set of seven Raphael cartoons to the National Gallery in London. This did not happen and they remained at the V&A.

After Reitlinger's death, his collection was on show at the Reitlinger Bequest Museum in Maidenhead, which closed in 1987 and in 1991 the items were transferred to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Reitlinger's remaining personal collections had been auctioned at Sotheby's in 1953 and 1954. This drawing must have been sold around that time. 

It was acquired from Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd. in London by William Bainter O'Neal (1907-1994) an American professor and architectural historian who lived in Charlottesville, Virginia. He owned the Shannon drawing from 1982 until his death. It was gifted (with over 500 other art works) to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1995.

The figure of Atlas does not appear in any of Shannon’s other works: neither in sketches, lithographs nor paintings.

[Thanks are due to Peter Huestis, Museum Specialist, Digital Content Strategy and Experience – Imaging, National Gallery of Art, Washington]