Phillip Medhurst

St Paul Shaking off the Viper. 1786. Sketch. Oil on canvas. Support: 1295 × 724 mms, frame: 1588 × 1030 × 108 mms. Tate Gallery, London. West was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the new chapel of Greenwich Hospital (now the Royal Naval Hospital). Originally, this was a sketch for the much larger painting, to be placed on the main altar of the chapel. West exhibited the sketch for the huge work at the Royal Academy in 1787 as a modello at the Royal Academy’s yearly show, and is one of a few prepared for the final painting. It corresponds very closely to the finished painting in the chapel at Greenwich, with only minute differences.