Landscape with the Death of Procris

Procris gave her husband Cephalus a magic dog and a spear which had been given to her by Diana, the goddess of the hunt. She believed him to have been unfaithful to her and so hid when he approached, but Cephalus by mistake killed her with the spear (Ovid, 'Metamorphoses', Book VII). Here Cephalus is shown accompanied by a dog, discovering in horror his dead wife. Behind the foreground group a deer is silhouetted against the setting sun.

This canvas is a copy of a work by Claude, the whereabouts of which (if it survives) is unknown; the composition of the original is recorded in the 'Liber Veritatis' (London, British Museum) on sheet no. 100.