Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Francis Hayman, 1707/8–1776, British
Title:
The Good Samaritan
Date:
between 1751 and 1752
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
78 1/2 × 48 1/2 inches (199.4 × 123.2 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1979.20
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
levite | pity | the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) | injuries | religious and mythological subject | New Testament | Bible | donkey | bottle | nude | costume | mule | scroll (information artifact) | blood (animal material) | blood | priest | traveler | bishop (prelate) | men | reading | pouring
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11)

Francis Hayman (Kenwood House, 1987-06-24 - 1987-09-30)

Francis Hayman (Yale Center for British Art, 1987-04-01 - 1987-05-31)
Publications:
Brian Allen, Francis Hayman, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1987, pp. 55, 57-8, 122, 124, 176, no. 47, pl. IX, NJ18 H3324 A54 (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 112-113, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 29, ND466 .G67 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
The parable of the Good Samaritan is unique to the Gospel of St. Luke (Luke 10:30–37) and was told by Jesus in response to the question: “And who is my neighbor?” Francis Hayman depicts the Good Samaritan tending to the wounds of a stranger on the road to Jericho while a priest and a Levite pass him by. William Wrightson, a member of Parliament, commissioned it as an altarpiece for a new chapel at Cusworth Hall, his house near Doncaster then being extensively remodeled. Wrightson was consequently a very unusual patron since devotional pictures were rare in Britain after the Protestant Reformation and, unlike Italy or France, few churches and chapels in Britain were adorned with altarpieces. Hayman was Wrightson’s natural choice because by 1750 he had established himself as the leading history painter in Britain and was defiantly British, although strongly influenced by the latest French painting. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:499