Attributed to Elie Honoré MONTAGNY (1782-1864) The Walk of Téthys Paper mounted on canvas 45.5 x 63 cm Accident A student of David's in Paris, Elie Honoré Montagny was in Rome with Suvée as director of the Villa Médicis. He was sent to Naples in 1805 by the French Embassy in Rome. In Naples, he was official painter to Queen Caroline Murat until 1815. Like his contemporary Felice Giani, Montagny was a decorative painter. Seated in a shell-shaped chariot drawn by horses, the goddess Tethys walks surrounded by a procession of dolphins, Tritons and Oceanids. The goddess is nursing her son, the little god Palemon, and raises a golden scepter in her left hand to steer the wind-driven waves. The subject is depicted in a drawing by Jean Bardin. An attribution to an English painter around 1820 in the circle of William Etty has been suggested.