William McGregor Paxton

(1869-1941)

Phryne 45 3/8 x 36 in. (115.3 x 91.4 cm.)

Footnotes

Provenance
Elizabeth Vaughan (née Okie) Paxton (1878-1972), Newton Centre, Massachusetts, wife of the artist, by descent from the artist, 1941.
Sale, Christie's, New York, December 4, 1992, lot 144. (as Nellie and Phryne)
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale.

Exhibited
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 119th Annual Exhibition, February-March 1924, no. 24.
New York, National Academy of Design, Winter Exhibition, November-December 1924, no. 188.
Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 14th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings, March 24–May 5, 1935.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 131st Annual Exhibition, January 26-March 1, 1936, p. 17, no. 128. (as Nellie Looks Down on Phryne)
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Works of William McGregor Paxton, N.A., Memorial Exhibition of Paintings, November 19-December 14, 1941, p. 20, no. 43. (as Nellie and Phryne)

Literature
"Pennsylvania Academy Shows Orthodox Art: Conservative Tradition Upheld in 119th Annual—Only a Few Moderns Creep In—Excellent Showing of Sculpture," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York, February 17, 1924, vol. 84, no. 47, sec. B, p. 2B.
Boston Traveler, March 18, 1924.
E. L., "Philadelphia Likes Pictures of Nudes: For the Third Time in Four Years Popular Prize at the Academy Show Goes to Such a Painting," The Art News, New York, March 29, 1924, vol. XXII, no. 25, p. 1.
Philadelphia Public Ledger, March 29, 1924.
E. Castello, "Art in Philadelphia," The American Magazine of Art, New York, May 1924, vol. 15, no. 5, p. 269.
H.A. Read, "The Winter Academy," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York, November 23, 1924, vol. 84, no. 327, sec. B, p. 2B.
"Paxton Nude Wins Corcoran Prize: Boston Artist First in Popularity Voting for Fourth Time.," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., April 30, 1935, no. 33,236, p. A-2. (as Nellie Looks Down on Phryne)
"'Nellie,' the Nude, Steals the Corcoran Art Show From 'Red Moore,' Another Smitty," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York, May 8, 1935, yr. 94, no. 127, p. 19. (as Nellie Looks Down on Phryne)
E.W. Lee, M.F. Krause, Jr., R.H. Ives Gammel, William McGregor Paxton, 1869-1941, exhibition catalogue, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1979, p. 115.
P.H. Falk, A.A. Bien, eds., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: Volume III, 1914-1968, Madison, Connecticut, 1989, pp. 362-63, nos. 25, 128. (as Phryne and Nellie Looks Down on Phryne)

William McGregor Paxton painted Phryne circa 1923 when he was working at the height of his artistic abilities alongside the painters of the Boston School who were at the time producing many of their most celebrated works. Although Paxton is best known for his idealized portraits of elegantly dressed women in romantic interiors, his nudes are revered for both their technical prowess and the timeless beauty they exude. In the present work, Paxton depicts a young woman-referred to as Nellie by several accounts-nude and holding a small statue of Phryne, the famed hetaira or courtesan of ancient Greece.

Paxton commonly employed props in his paintings to instill narrative and symbolism, carefully orchestrating their arrangement in relation to his subjects. Phryne (c. 371 BC-after 316 BC) was active in Athens and is best remembered for being placed on trial for her impiety. She was defended by the orator Hypereides (c. 390 BC-322 BC) and, according to legend, was acquitted after baring her breasts to the jury. She became one of the wealthiest women in Greece and modeled for the artists Apelles and Praxiteles. Her likeness would be painted by notable artists for centuries, especially of the late 18th century, such as by Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), and famously by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) in Phryne before the Areopagus (c. 1861, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany). In the present work, Paxton's choice to have the young woman hold a statue of Phryne can be interpreted as a clever comment on the young woman's status as a prized model of beauty and on Paxton's own position among the ranks of history's greatest artists.

Shortly after its completion in 1924, Paxton exhibited the present work at the 119th Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia where it was awarded by popular honor the $250 Philadelphia Prize. At that time, it was the third nude in four years to receive the prize. The award and the quality of the public's judgment received protest, to which Paxton responded, "There are always soreheads as the result of an award of prizes at an art exhibition...The public is entitled to an opinion of course. Apparently from the selection the public likes the nude. It is not my opinion of a popular picture in the least." (as quoted in E.W. Lee, M.F. Krause, Jr., R.H. Ives Gammel, William McGregor Paxton, 1869-1941, exhibition catalogue, Indianapolis, 1979, p. 115.) Paxton exhibited the work again in 1935 at the 14th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings of The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. where it received the $200 prize awarded to the picture that received the most votes in a popular referendum.