How does this artwork elucidate its History?
Dr. Drummond read Tacitus to West over dinner one evening with his own commentary on events, which West depicted in his work. West was enthused for the project as he himself was a neoclassicist. The work was unveiled in 1768 to great approval from King George III. This occurs during a propaganda war in the royal court between members with influence over the king's mother, Princess Augusta, to which the work owes its sudden popularity. Agrippina publicly draws analogies between the grieving widow at Brundisium and the mother of King George III. Agrippina's grief at Brundisium was an obscure story in the history of art before this.The historical precision of Agrippina impressed King George III enough he commissioned West for a painting himself (The Departure of Regulus from Rome). The work would eventually find a place in the Royal Academy's inaugural exhibition in 1769. West would continue producing paintings for the king over the coming years, numbering some sixty in all.Agrippina was a renowned model of noble grief in eighteenth-century neoclassical art. Conventions changed going into the Victorian period, however, with more expressive renderings of grief coming into vogue than that established by West.The painting was later gifted to Yale University Art Gallery by Louis M. Rabinowitz where it remains today.
Tacitus George III Royal Academy King George III Yale University Art Gallery Princess Augusta Louis M. Rabinowitz Brundisium