George Knapton

PORTRAIT OF THE HON. WILLIAM NAPIER (1730-1775), THREE-QUARTER LENGTH

1735

WILLIAM HOARE OF BATH, R.A. (1707-1792) PORTRAIT OF A LADY IN PEARLS Pastels on paper laid to canvas 61 x 45.5 cm Provenance: Private Collection, Buck...

FOLLOWER OF BARTOLOMEO PASSAROTTI (1529-1592) PROFILE STUDY OF A YOUNG NOBLEMAN Pen & ink on laid paper 18.3 x 13.2 cm 28.5 x 23.5 cm [Framed] Provenance: With Jean-Paul Meulemeester, Brussels; Private Collection, Antwerp We are grateful to Dr. Corinna Höper for her assistance in cataloguing this work and confirming the attribution on the basis of digital photographs. The present work bears many of the hallmarks of the hand of Bartolomeo Passarotti: the heavy crosshatching, applied in sections throughout the face and neck to create depth and shading, shows the strong influence of the 16th century Florentine school, in particular Baccio Bandinelli...

GEORGE RICHMOND, R.A. (1809-1896) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN, CAP & GLOVES IN HAND Watercolour with bodycolour 39 x 29 cm George Richmond began his career as one of ‘The Ancients’, a loosely-knit artistic group in the orbit of the poet William Blake towards the end of his life. They were united in a vague belief in classical man’s superiority, drawing inspiration from Greek and Roman mythology, Christian imagery, literature, especially the poetry of Milton and Spencer, and the work of Shakespeare, as well as the natural world. Despite such mystical beginnings, Richmond’s nascent reputation as one of Britain’s foremost portraitists led him down a different path to his fellow Ancients, though he remained close to several of them throughout his life. He would go on to paint much of the British aristocracy...

GEORGE RICHMOND, R.A. (1809-1896) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN IN PROFILE Black, white & red chalks on buff paper 56 x 42 cm Provenance: Private Collection, U.K. As yet, the identity ...

CHARLES-LOUIS CLÉRISSEAU (1721-1820) THE GARDENS AT THE VILLA D'ESTE AT SUNSET, TIVOLI Signed l.r. Clérisseau Pen & black ink, pencil, and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour 45.1 x 59 cm 81 x 77 cm [Framed] Provenance: [Purchased by a previous owner in the U.S. for $34,000 according to an earlier label] Private Collection, Madison Avenue, N.Y. ‘I found out Clérisseau .. in whom tho’there is no guile, Yet there is the utmost knowledge of Architecture, of perspective, and of Designing and Colouring I ever Saw, or had any conception of; He rais’d my Ideas, He created emulation and fire in my Breast. I wish’d above all to learn his manner, to have him with me at Rome, to Study close with him and to purchase of his works ..’ (Robert Adam to his brother James, 19th February 1755) Clérisseau was born in Paris and studied there under the auspices of Germaine Boffrand, an architectural draughtsman. At just 25 years old, Clérisseau won the foremost architectural prize in France, the Prix de Rome, and so travelled to the French Academy in Rome (housed in the Villa Medici) to take up residence as a pensionnaire. He arrived in 1749, and began to study under Giovanni Paolo Pannini, the great painter of architectural capricci. Clérisseau befriended two other great architectural draughtsmen, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and Claude-Joseph Vernet. Clérisseau remained in Rome for eighteen years, becoming an authority on antique Roman architecture, undertaking his own works, including his famous ruin room at the Trinita dei Monti convent, as well as teaching and acting as an artistic cicerone for other visitors. These visitors comprised a series of winners of the Prix de Rome, as well as French and British Grand Tourists, including some of the leading contemporary exponents of British neoclassicism, such as William Chambers and Robert and James Adam. For part of the 1750s, Clérisseau and Robert Adam shared lodgings in the Casa Guarnieri, near to the Spanish Steps. This was arguably one of the most important periods during Adam - who would become one of Britain’s most renowned architects. In his correspondence from this time, Adams mentions how Clérisseau suggested that he first learn to draw a plethora of ornamental motifs, often from Clérisseau’s own designs, before attempting full-scale architectural drawings. Clérisseau and Adam’s drawings from that time are largely rendered in pencil, pen and watercolour, and are either capricci or records of architecture, fragments and ornamental motifs from the buildings they encountered throughout Italy. The latter appear, on the whole, to have been drawn from life. On occasion, Clérisseau’s well-documented distortions of perspective, so as to show a piece of architecture to its best advantage, can be seen in Adam’s work too. The drawings utilise Clérisseau’s characteristic mode of depicting architecture in solid lines of ink but complement this with hazy watercolour backgrounds and imagined topographies. In 1757, Clérisseau even accompanied Robert Adam to Spalatro, Dalmatia (now Split, Croatia) for five weeks in order to survey the ruins of the Palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian for publication. Following Robert’s departure from Italy, Clérisseau supervised the production of the engravings for his publication, Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro… (1764). Moreover, many of the expedition drawings finally selected for engraving are thought to have been by Clérisseau himself rather than Adam or the other accompanying draughtsmen. However, he received no credit for this in Adam’s subsequent book, though this did nothing to stop his reputation’s ascendence. Clérisseau returned to Paris in 1767, a hugely respected artist in his own right. From the French capital, he cultivated a list of eminent clients, which included Catherine the great (who commissioned designs for a house and a triumphal bridge from the artist). The Russian Empress even gave Clérisseau the title Premier Architecte de Sa Majestée Impériale and made him an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In 1774, the 1st Marquis of Lansdowne commissioned Clérisseau to make designs for a library for Lansdowne House on Berkeley Square, London, but this was not executed. Soon afterwards, in 1785, Clérisseau was approached by Thomas Jefferson, then the United States Minister to France, to design the Virginia State...

CHARLES PERCIER (1764-1838) ELEMENTS D’ARCHITECTURE, AVEC LE SANGLIER BORGHÈSE Watercolour with pen & ink 29 x 20.8 cm Provenance: With Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox; Where purchased by Si...

Blue Profile is an original Contemporary Artwork realized in the half of the 20 Century. Original Drawing on cardboard. Colored Pastels. Mint conditions. Excellent work depicting...

Dance at the Dream Bar

Jogen Chowdhury : Untitled Pastel on Envelop ; 7 x 5 inches ; 2016 Signed by the Artist. Style : He has immense contribution in inspiring young artists of India. Jogen Chowdhury ha...

Pastel and conté crayon with partial foil star on Rives BFK paper Signed and dated, l.r. This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Mark Beard, born in 1956 in ...

A fine pastel portrait depicting Lady Hadew. Dated 1905. Presented in a sleek black frame with a crisp white mount. Indistinctly signed. On paper.

William Huggins was born in Liverpool, England on the 13th of May, 1820. His parents were Samuel and Elisabeth Huggins. He took his first drawing lessons from the Liverpool Mechanics...