At the end of 1948, Mrs. Mildred Bliss commissioned Allyn Cox to paint a reproduction of the "wall of the loggia as it was when new, done to scale -- coming to about eight feet in the larger dimension -- a size to fit comfortably the wall by the stairs going to the orangery." His original paintings, a series of seven oil on canvas depictions of on the theme of Diana and Acteon, had deteriorated and were removed from their original installation location in the swimming pool loggia and sent to Cox in New York to help him complete the commission. By the end of March 1949, Cox had nearly finished the copy, "or rather I think we should call it a free version, as I don't seem to be capable of making it agree literally with the original in all details." In fact, he thought it "probably somewhat better drawn and painted than the original."

The condition of the original paintings [HC.P.1927.02.a-g.(O)] was not considered stable enough for reinstallation in the swimming pool loggia. They were replaced, in part, with mosaic reproductions [GO.LO.Mosaic.1-3].

Commissioned from the artist by Mildred Barnes Bliss, 1948 for Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC