FRANK MOSS BENNETT (Liverpool 1874 – Whitcombe Barton, Newton Abbot, Devon 1952)
The Greek Runner Ladas Falling Dead as he Goes to Receive his Crown at Olympia
signed Frank M. Bennett in the lower right
oil on canvas
50 x 40 inches (127 x 101.5 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Purchased from the artist by
P. A. Valentine, circa 1900
Property of the Late P.A, Valentine, New York, American Art Association, New York, March 7-9, 1923, lot 48, where purchased by
K. Austin
Property of a New York Collector, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1941
EXHIBITED
London, Royal Academy School, Royal Academy School Competitions for 1899 (awarded Gold Medal and Travelling Scholarship), 1899
London, Royal Academy, May – August 1900 (partial label from the exhibition on the reverse of the stretcher), no. 636
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 1901 – 1907, (on loan from P. A. Valentine)
LITERATURE
“List of Awards” in The British Architect: A Journal of Architecture and its Accessory Arts, volume LII, London, December 15, 1899
“Mr. Chamberlin on Art” in The Builder, December 16, 1899, p. 551
Charles Holmes, ed., “ Studio Talk, London”, in The Studio, volume 19, no. 83, February 5, 1900, p. 45
“Studio Talk, London”, in The International Studio, An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, volume 10, New York offices of the International Studio, 1899 – 1900, pp. 45, 121, illustrated
Aubyn Trevor – Battye, “The Royal Academy Gold Medal Picture” in The Artist, volume XXVII, Truslove, Hanson & Combe, Ltd., New York, Supplement to March 1900, unpaginated, illustrated
The Railway News, volume LXXIII, London, January – June 1900, p. 170
“The Royal Academy” in The Athenaeum Journal, no. 3787, Athenaeum Press, May 26, 1900, p. 663
Pall Mall Magazine Extra: Pictures of 1900, Pall Mall Publication, London, 1900, p.29
Henry Frantz, “The Royal Academy and ‘Prix de Rome’ Competitions” in The Magazine of Art, Cassel and Company, Limited, London, Paris, New York & Melbourne, 1900, p. 183, illustrated
The Pictures of 1900, The Royal Academy, p. 34, illustrated
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, Wm. Clowes and Sons, Limited, London, 1900, p.44, no. 636
The Academy Notes 1900, Chatto and Windus, London, May 1900, p. 636
“Royal Academy Prize Distribution” in The Artist, Truslove, Hanson & Combe, Ltd. New York, 1900, pp. 339, 350, illustrated
“Modern Oil Paintings, British” in The Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Objects in the Museum, Chicago, Illinois, August 1901, p. 198, no. 344 (lent by P.A. Valentine, reprinted in 1904)
Martin Hardie, “Golf” in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume LXXXV, Macmillan and Co., Limited, New York, November 1901, p. 47
The Year’s Art, 1901, p. 71
R. Tait Mackenzie, “A Study of the Face in Breathlessness”, in Outing, volume 39, The Outing Publishing Company, New York, 1902, p. 450
“Have You Missed Any of these Beautiful Pictures, Another Masterpiece for Journal Readers, Don’t Overlook This One” in Indianapolis Journal, volume 54, no. 115, Indianapolis, April 24, 1904, p. 18
“The Royal Academy Gold Medal” in The Strand Magazine, volume XXXII, February 1904, p. 72, illustrated
J. E. Hodgson and Fred A. Eaton , “Gold Medalists and Travelling Students in Painting” The Royal Academy and its Members, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905, p. 386
Algernon Graves, “Frank M. Bennett” in The Royal Academy of Arts, A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from its Foundation in 1719 to 1904, volume I, Henry Graves & Co. Ltd., London, 1905, p. 180, no. 636
“Death at the Moment of Victory, The Story of Ladas the Famous Spartan Runner” in The Sphere, An Illustrated Newspaper for the Home, volume 27, Great New Street, London, October 20, 1906, p. 69
The Boy’s Own Annual, volume 29, “Boy’s Own Paper” Office, London, 1906 -1907, p. 521, illustrated
Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Sculpture, Paintings and Other Objects, A Supplement to General Catalogue, List of Loans, Chicago, February 1907, p. 289, no. 1151, (lent by P.A. Valentine)
Walter T. Roberts, “Story Pictures, The Art of Frank Bennett”, in Pearsons Magazine, volume XXXIV, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., London, July – December 1912, p. 459
Edward S. Ellis & Charles F. Horne, “The Victory of Death” in The Story of the Greatest Nations with One Thousand of the World’s Most Famous Events Portrayed in Word and Picture, volume First, Francis R. Niglutsch, New York, 1913, illustrated no. I-93
“Frank Moss Bennett” in Clifton College Register 1862 – 1962, S.P. Beachcroft, Bristol, 1962, p. 32
American Art Annual, volume 20, The American Federation of Arts, Washington, D.C., 1923, p. 291
Bernard Dolman, ed., ”Frank Moss Bennett” in A Dictionary of Contemporary British Artists, 1929, Art Trade Press Limited, London, 1929, p. 35
Frank Lewis, “Frank Moss Bennett” in A Dictionary of British Historical Painters, Leigh on Sea, 1979, p. 12
Sally Mitchel, “Frank Moss Bennett” in The Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists, Antique Collector’s Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1985, p. 117
J. Johnson & A. Greutzner, eds., “Frank Moss Bennett”, in The Dictionary of British Artists 1880 – 1940, Antique Collector’s Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1988, p. 53
Christopher Wood, Frank Moss Bennett, in The Dictionary of Victorian Painters, Antique Collector’s Club, Suffolk, 1989, p. 45
Brian Stewart, “Frank Moss Bennett” in The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920, Antique Collector’s Club, Woodbridge, 1997, p. 95
Carol Fitzgerald, “Frank Moss Bennett”, in Handbook of Modern British Painting and Printmaking 1900 -1990, Ashgate Publishing, Abingdon, Oxon, 1998, unpaginated
Maureen Elizabeth Son, Frank Moss Bennett, 1874 – 1952, (The Forgotten Artist), Son Publishing, Enfield, Middlesex, 2006, pp. 3-4, 87, illustrated.
In 1899 Frank Moss Bennett, a student at the Royal Academy School of Art, won the gold medal and travelling scholarship for his painting The Greek Runner Ladas Falling Dead as he Goes to Receive his Crown at Olympia. In 1900 it was exhibited at the Royal Academy where it proved to be a sensation as “thousands of reproductions of it were sold in a few months”.[1] The positive response in the British and American press was immediate and continued for years, as it had obviously struck a chord.
The Arcadian athlete Ladas was a long-distance runner, the fastest of his generation, who achieved Olympic victory in 460 or 456 B.C. It is believed that he died shortly thereafter at the stadium or on the journey home.[2] In a subject rarely painted, Bennett chose to vividly portray Ladas’ collapse as he is awarded the laurel crown of victory. Draped only in a yellow chlamys, Ladas reaches for the falling wreath with his right hand while clutching his heart with his left. The judges and entire audience look on in horror and disbelief. At his feet are a dead palm, the other awarded symbol of victory, along with a fallen flower. Overhead is a decorative frieze of a chariot race, one of the most popular events of the Olympic Games, from which a bundle of laurel is suspended awaiting other victors. While in the upper right a darkened statue of Nike the Winged Goddess of Victory, symbolic of the sound of speed, movement, power, and motivation, strikes a final poignant note. Described in the press as a work of the Pre-Raphaelite school, reflective of the contemporary passion for classical subjects, the cruel injustice of Ladas’ fate at the pinnacle of his fame and success tugged at the heartstrings of its viewers.
The awarded travelling scholarship gave Bennett the opportunity to journey throughout Italy painting for one year. This he did in the company of his friend and fellow artist Eddie Wells. Upon his return such was the notoriety of Ladas that his career was set and he “seldom had a completed picture in his studio for more than a few weeks.”[3] He painted portraits, landscapes, interior scenes and what he is now best remembered for works of genre.
The genre subjects ranged from contemporary life to costume scenes often of historical figures from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries or period pieces featuring primarily what was then regarded as the manly pursuits of gaming, hunting, fishing, drinking, feasting and other pastimes such as building model ships. These works proved extremely popular, and their images were widely dispersed through prints, calendars, blotters, tin canisters, liquor bottle labels, gaming cards, and advertisements.[4]
Having married in 1907 with Margaret Pellow and had two children, such means enabled him to support his family at a time when many other artists struggled to survive. Although he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of the Painters in Watercolors and the Paris Salon, he rarely strayed from what had proven steadily successful.[5] Never again would any other work reach the high drama, overt sensuality, and singular impact that Ladas achieved when he was just a student in 1899. By 1912 in an article on his work that appeared in Pearson’s Magazine, Bennett somewhat mystifyingly attempted to distance himself deriding the painting, having rejected all modern trends, describing himself as “an earnest and faithful follower of the teaching of the old masters, from whom he believe[d] all that is worth knowing can be learnt”.[6] Perhaps the painting had proved too prophetic of his own career.
Privately owned since it was painted, last on public view in 1907 at the Art Institute of Chicago, continually noted in the literature on the artist, it is with great pleasure that we are able to reintroduce Frank Moss Bennett’s masterwork The Greek Runner Ladas Falling Dead as he Goes to Receive his Crown at Olympia.
[1] Walter T. Roberts, “Story Pictures”, Pearson’s Magazine, op.cit., p. 459.
[2] Victor John Matthews, “ Ladas the Long-Distance Runner” in South African Journals, at journals.co 297doi, 2007; and Jiri Kouril, Forgotten Heroes of Ancient Greek Olympic Games, Ovid University of Constanta at go.gale.com.
[3] Walter T. Roberts, “Story Pictures”, Pearson’s Magazine, op.cit., p. 459.
[4] Maureen Elizabeth Son, op.cit., pp. 59-66.
[5] Ibid, pp. 6-7, 69.
[6] Walter T. Roberts, “ Story Pictures”, Pearson’s Magazine, op.cit., p. 464.