A Grecian Harvest-Home, or Thanksgiving to the Rural Deities, Ceres, Bacchus, etc.

dated May 1, 1791, issued 1792

Not on view

Barry imagines an agrarian society modeled on Virgil’s Georgics, with Greek maidens and youths dancing at a harvest festival and a society that is in "a state of happiness, simplicity and fecundity." Details such as the wrestlers at left hint that competition will stimulate civilization to advance, even as it threatens the idyllic harmony. The etching comes from a series based on canvases Barry painted between 1777 and 1782 to adorn the Great Room of the Society of Arts in London. Three of six trace the rise of Greek civilization, including Orpheus Instructing a Savage People (on view nearby). Barry published this image in 1792 to disseminate his imagery to a wider audience.

Artwork Details

Title: A Grecian Harvest-Home, or Thanksgiving to the Rural Deities, Ceres, Bacchus, etc.
Artist: James Barry (Irish, Cork 1741–1806 London)
Date: dated May 1, 1791, issued 1792
Medium: Etching and engraving; unrecorded alternate third state of four
Dimensions: Sheet: 16 1/8 × 19 13/16 in. (41 × 50.3 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, 2014
Object Number: 2014.656
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By James Barry

In the same medium

Satan, Sin, and Death: "Death and Sin met by Satan on his Return from Earth", James Barry Irish, Graphite, brush and brown ink, gray and brown wash heightened with touches of white — Satan, Sin, and Death: "Death and Sin met by Satan on his Return from Earth"
James Barry
Subject Relates to John Milton
1792–95

Scrapbook of Drawings and Prints, Gideon Saint British, Pen and ink, engraving and etching — Scrapbook of Drawings and Prints
Gideon Saint
ca. 1760

Orpheus Instructing a Savage People in Theology and the Arts of Social Life, James Barry Irish, Etching and engraving; second state of three — Orpheus Instructing a Savage People in Theology and the Arts of Social Life
James Barry
plate dated May 1, 1791, issued 1792

The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons), Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, Etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing; first state of four (Robison) — The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Publisher Giovanni Bouchard
ca. 1749–50

Job Reproved by His Friends, James Barry Irish, Etching over traces of aquatint; third state of five — Job Reproved by His Friends
James Barry
dated 1777; issued ca. 1790

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