Items Similar to Eighteenth century Old Master drawing - St Jerome
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5
John Hamilton MortimerEighteenth century Old Master drawing - St Jeromec.1763
c.1763
$11,014.38
£8,000
€9,422.80
CA$15,089.14
A$16,742.68
CHF 8,770.17
MX$205,310.16
NOK 111,553.59
SEK 105,301.83
DKK 70,271.71
Shipping
Retrieving quote...The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation
About the Item
Pen, ink and wash
Framed dimensions: 9 ½ x 11 ¼ inches
Drawn c. 1763
This small, powerful study shows St Jerome contemplating the bible with a cross and skull. This sheet belongs to a small group of drawings Mortimer made of saints, including a grand study of the penitent Magdalen at Princeton. The drawing is similar in style and conception to the study of Sterne’s Captive in the Oppé Collection at the Tate, a drawing which was engraved posthumously in 1781. Mortimer was aware of the mutability of certain figure types. A naked old man posed in a dramatic landscape was exhibited in 1772 as Nebuchadnezzar recovering his reason, but a similarly posed figure was published in 1782 as Don Quixote in the Sable Mountains. Here, the presence of the cross, book and skull and lines from the Vulgate inscribed in the top right hand corner confirm the identity of the figure. In common with Mortimer’s restless interest in capturing the human figure from unusual angles, he has shown St Jerome from behind, his left leg raised and resting on the ledge of his hermitage. The muscular action of the figure, gives remarkable strength to the design.
- Creator:John Hamilton Mortimer (1740 - 1779, English)
- Creation Year:c.1763
- Dimensions:Height: 4 in (10.16 cm)Width: 6.38 in (16.21 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU150728412192
John Hamilton Mortimer
John Hamilton Mortimer was a British figure and landscape painter and printmaker, known for romantic paintings set in Italy, works depicting conversations and works drawn in the 1770s portraying war scenes, similar to those of Salvator Rosa. Mortimer became President of the Society of Artists in 1774, five years before his death, at age 39.
About the Seller
5.0
Recognized Seller
These prestigious sellers are industry leaders and represent the highest echelon for item quality and design.
1stDibs seller since 2021
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: London, United Kingdom
- Return Policy
Authenticity Guarantee
In the unlikely event there’s an issue with an item’s authenticity, contact us within 1 year for a full refund. DetailsMoney-Back Guarantee
If your item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, contact us within 7 days for a full refund. Details24-Hour Cancellation
You have a 24-hour grace period in which to reconsider your purchase, with no questions asked.Vetted Professional Sellers
Our world-class sellers must adhere to strict standards for service and quality, maintaining the integrity of our listings.Price-Match Guarantee
If you find that a seller listed the same item for a lower price elsewhere, we’ll match it.Trusted Global Delivery
Our best-in-class carrier network provides specialized shipping options worldwide, including custom delivery.More From This Seller
View AllEighteenth century Old Master drawing - Apollo destroying Niobe's children
By John Hamilton Mortimer
Located in London, GB
Pen, ink and wash
Framed dimensions: 13 x 11 ¼ inches
Drawn c.1765
Verso: a study of a hanged man
Mortimer has filled this small sheet with action, depicting in the top right, Apollo and Artemis...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Pen
Drawing of a captive woman
By Henry Fuseli
Located in London, GB
Collections:
Sir Thomas Lawrence, who acquired the contents of Fuseli’s studio;
Susan, Countess of Guilford, née Coutts (1771-1837), acquired from the Lawrence estate;
Susan, Baroness North (1797-1884), daughter of the above;
Mrs A. M. Jaffé, acquired in France, c. 1950 to 2016.
Black chalks, on buff-coloured paper
Stamped verso: ‘Baroness Norths Collection / of Drawings by H Fuseli Esq.’
Framed dimensions: 26.38 x 20.63 inches
This boldly drawn sheet depicting a seated figure was made by Fuseli at an important and highly productive moment in his career. The monumental drawing is closely related to another sheet by Fuseli in the British Museum which Schiff published as subject unknown. Both drawings were made when Fuseli was designing his most important sequence of historical works, including scenes from Shakespeare and Milton, The Nightmare and The Death of Dido which was exhibited at the Royal Academy to great critical acclaim in 1781. The present drawing does not relate directly to any of Fuseli’s finished historical paintings of the period, but evidently the image of a slightly menacing, seated and covered old woman was precisely the sort of motif he was playing with. It is notable that the same figure reappears later in Fuseli’s work as the witch from Ben Jonson’s Witch’s Song which Fuseli produced as both a painting and engraving in 1812.
Fuseli returned to London in 1779 from a highly creative and productive period in Rome and established himself as one of the leading history painters of the period. Fuseli re-established contact with his old mentor Sir Joshua Reynolds, becoming a regular guest at his dinner table and visitor to his studio. The earliest and most striking manifestation of this strategy was Fuseli's Death of Dido, exhibited in 1781 at the Royal Academy. Executed on the same scale as Reynolds's version (Royal Collection), Fuseli's vertically oriented picture was hung directly opposite Reynolds's with its horizontal orientation, inevitably inviting comparison between the two works and garnering Fuseli much publicity and favourable reviews in the newspapers.
The present, previously unpublished sheet, relates closely to a drawing now in the British Museum. That sheet shows the same seated old woman, drawn on a smaller scale and more schematic in design, seated next to an anatomical drawing of a man. The pose of this figure is related to the pose of Dido in his Death of Dido; the foreshortened torso, arrangement of head, oblique view of Dido’s features and arms all suggest that the study can be viewed as an initial thought for the composition. Fuseli may have initially thought of including the figure of the hunched and covered old woman. Drawn on identical paper to the British Museum sheet, our study is an enlarged depiction of the same figure, more elaborately delineated and developed. The presence of a chain to the right of the figure, suggests that the iconography was related in some way to a scene of imprisonment.
Fuseli had first explored the motif of the hooded old woman in an early Roman drawing, 'The Venus Seller'. The idea of a grotesque old woman, hooded and with angular nose and projecting chin seen in profile was most spectacularly used by Fuseli in his sequence of paintings depicting The Three Witches from Macbeth. Fuseli seems to have kept the present sheet and may have returned to it when preparing a painting of The Witch and the Mandrake from Ben Jonson’s Witch’s Song from his Masque of Queens in 1812. Here the same seated figure looks out from under her hood and picks a mandrake by moonlight. Jonson’s drama had been performed at the court of James I in 1609, inspired the subject. To throw the nobility of the queens into relief, the poet added a coven of witches, one of whom declares: ‘I last night lay all alone, On the ground, to hear the mandrake groan; And plucked him up, though he grew full low, And, as I had done, the cock did crow.’ The figure was reversed in the associated etching which was published in 1812. It seems likely that the present drawing remained as part of Fuseli’s working archive of figure studies.
The present drawing was presumably purchased with the bulk of Fuseli’s drawings after the artist’s death by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Lawrence’s large group of Fuseli drawings were then acquired by Susan, Countess of Guildford (1771-1837). Lady Guildford was the eldest daughter of the banker Thomas Coutts (1735-1822), who himself had supported Fuseli’s journey to Rome in the 1770s and had remained one of the artist’s key...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
18th century ink study for the Leveson-Gower Children
By George Romney
Located in London, GB
Collections: J. Goodfriend, USA.
Brown wash and pencil on laid paper
Framed dimensions: 13.25 x 11.75 inches
This powerful drawing was made at the time that Romney was painting the famous group portrait of the Gower Children now in Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal. Romney was a bold and incisive draughtsman who made numerous rich brown ink studies, principally for historical compositions; by contrast, comparatively few studies linked directly to his portraits survive. The existence of a group of studies for the Gower Children underscores its importance to Romney. The sitters were the five youngest of the eight children of Granville, 2nd Earl Gower who, at the time the portrait was commissioned, was President of the Council in Lord North’s government and one of the best-connected and most influential people in England. The present drawing which is a large scale treatment of the composition in its final form perfectly distils Romney’s conceit: the younger children dancing whilst their elder sister, in the guise of a Bacchante plays the tambourine. The bold and dramatic study underlines both the artistic confidence and classical grandeur Romney gained during his trip to Italy between 1773 and 1775.
The commission from Granville, 2nd Earl Gower to paint five of his children came shortly after Romney’s Continental tour. The initial idea, as represented by the present drawing, seems to have been to paint Lady Anne, the figure on the right of the composition playing the tambourine, who was the youngest of Gower’s first four children by his second wife Lady Louisa Egerton and who married the Rev. Edward Vernon Harcourt, later Archbishop of York, with three of her younger half-siblings by Gower’s third wife, Lady Susanna Stewart: at the left Lady Georgina, who became Countess of St Germans following her marriage to the Hon. William Eliot; at the right Lady Charlotte Sophia, later Duchess of Beaufort and in the centre Lady Susanna, later Countess of Harrowby. Romney added a fifth child to the finished portrait, Gower’s son: Lord Granville, later created Viscount Granville and Earl Granville. In Italy Romney had produced a large number of studies of classical antiquities and old master paintings.
The commission from Gower offered Romney the opportunity to explore a complex multi-figural group, putting into practice the kind of ambitious classical quotations that Reynolds was currently exploiting. In 1773 Reynolds had completed the remarkable group portrait of the Montgomery Sisters, now in the Tate Gallery, London, which showed them adorning a herm of the Roman god Hymen; the composition used a garland to link the three figures who were shown in classical costume dancing at the foot of a Roman sculpture. Scholars have long pointed to a similar sources for the two compositions: the works of Nicolas Poussin. Whilst the Montgomery Sisters is based, in part, on a Bacchanal now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the Gower Children has always been associated with Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time, now in the Wallace Collection, London. It seems more likely that Romney was looking to an antique source in the form of the Borghese Dancers, a Roman relief, then in Palazzo Borghese in Rome. Romney would have seen the relief of interlocking, dancing maidens and would also have known Guido Reni’s Aurora...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Pencil
18th century portrait of the Royal Academy model George White
By John Russell
Located in London, GB
Collections:
Russell sale, Christie’s, 14 February, 1807: ‘John Russell, Esq., R.A. deceased, crayon painter to His Majesty, the Prince of Wales, and Duke of York; and brought from his late Dwelling in Newman Street’, lot 92, ‘St Peter’, bt. Thompson (£1.13s);
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 25th September 1980, lot 113;
Private collection, UK, 2016.
Literature:
Martin Postle, 'Patriarchs, prophets and paviours: Reynolds's images of old age', The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxx, no. 1027, October 1988, pp. 739-40, fig. 9;
Martin Postle, Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Subject Pictures, Cambridge, 1995, p.136, repr.;
Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition, J.64.2928.
Signed and dated: J Russell/ fecit 1772 (lower right)
Framed dimensions: 25 x 31 inches
John Russell was admitted to the Royal Academy in March 1770, at the same time as Daniel Gardner. The nascent Academy Schools were still establishing their teaching structures, but central to the syllabus were the twin components of drawing after the antique and from life models. By 1772 Russell had already been awarded a silver medal and progressed to the life academy, where he produced this remarkable pastel study of George White. White was the most famous model employed by the Royal Academy and prominent artists in the second half of the eighteenth century. A paviour – or street mender –by profession White had been discovered by Joshua Reynolds, who in turn introduced him to the Academy. Russell’s striking head study demonstrates his abilities as a portraitist and pastellist, at the same time showing his interest in the Academy’s preoccupation with promoting history painting.
George White was one of the most celebrated models in eighteenth-century London. According to the painter Joseph Moser:
'Old George…owed the ease in which he passed his latter days, in a great measure to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who found him exerting himself in the laborious employment of thumping down stones in the street; and observing not only the grand and majestic traits of his countenance, but the dignity of his muscular figure, took him out of a situation to which his strength was by no means equal, clothed, fed, and had him, first as a model in his own painting room, then introduced him as a subject for the students of the Royal Academy.'
As Martin Postle has pointed out, whilst characterful studies of old men posed as biblical figures, prophets or saints by Continental old masters were readily available on the art market – Reynolds himself had copied a head of Joab by Federico Bencovich in the collection of his friend and patron, Lord Palmerston - finding a model in Britain from whom to execute a painting was more difficult.
White therefore offered a rare opportunity for artists to combine portraiture and history painting, by painting a model in the guise of an historical or literary character. In 1771 Reynolds showed at the Royal Academy a picture of White entitled Resignation. It was engraved in 1772 and accompanied by a stanza from Oliver Goldsmith’s Deserted Village, implying a literary context to what is essentially a portrait. In his annotated Royal Academy catalogue, Horace Walpole noted: ‘This was an old beggar, who had so fine a head that Sir Joshua chose him for the father in his picture from Dante, and painted him several times, as did others in imitation of Reynolds. There were even cameos and busts of him.’ White sat to, amongst others Johan Zoffany, John Sanders, Nathaniel Hone and the sculptor John Bacon...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
18th century oil sketches for a Baroque interior - a pair
Located in London, GB
A FEAST OF THE GODS WITH VENUS AND BACCHUS
Collections:
With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957;
Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961;
John and Eileen Harris, acquired from the above, to 2015.
Literature:
Jacob Simon and Ellis Hillman, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, cat. no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre);
Elizabeth Einberg (ed.), Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, exh. cat., London (Tate Gallery), 1987, cat. no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre);
Tabitha Barber and Tim Bachelor, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, exh. cat., London (Tate Britain), 2020.
Exhibited:
Twickenham, Marble Hill House, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre);
London, Tate Gallery, Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, 1987, no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre);
London, Tate Britain, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, cat. no 92, 2020.
CUPID AND PSYCHE BEFORE JUPITER
Collections:
With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957;
Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961;
Anthony Hobson, acquired from the above, to 2015.
These recently re-united paintings are the most ambitious surviving baroque ceiling sketches made in Britain in the early eighteenth century. From the Restoration until the rise of Palladianism in the 1720s decorative history painting formed the preeminent artistic discipline in Britain. It was a field dominated by Continental artists including the Italian Antonio Verrio and the Frenchmen Louis Laguerre and Louis Chéron...
Category
Early 18th Century Baroque Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Portrait drawing of Harriot Mellon, Mrs Thomas Coutts
By Henry Fuseli
Located in London, GB
Inscribed by the artist in pen and brown ink, upper margin: 'σοφὴν δὲ μισῶ: μὴ γὰρ ἔν γ' ἐμοῖς δόμοις / εἴη φρονοῦσα πλείον' ἢ γυναῖκα χρή [Euripides, Hippolytus, 11, 640-41: “But a ...
Category
19th Century Old Masters Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
You May Also Like
Antique Italian artist - 18th/19th century figure drawing - St. Sebastian
Located in Varmo, IT
Italian artist (18th-19th century) - Study for a St. Sebastian.
28 x 22 cm. 50 x 35 cm with passepartout.
Ink and pencil drawing on paper, without frame (not signed).
Condition re...
Category
Late 18th Century Baroque Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil, Paper
$715 Sale Price
25% Off
Free Shipping
Fine 18th Century French Old Master Ink Wash Drawing Cain & Abel Fighting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
'Cain et Abel'
Circle of Franois Devosge
(1732-1811) French
pencil drawing with watercolour wash on paper
size: 12.25 x 9 inches
private collection, France
The painting is in overall...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings
Materials
Washi Paper, Color Pencil
French Neo classical school, Allegory of Time, original drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Neo classical school, France, end of the 18th Century
Allegory of Time,
Pen and black ink on paper, gray ink wash
30.5 x 19 cm
irregularly shaped
In g...
Category
1790s Old Masters Nude Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
India Ink
$571 Sale Price
30% Off
Saint Jerome in the Desert, Prague school sanguine drawing
Located in New York, NY
Saint Jerome in the Desert Prague school sanguine drawing.
Category
Early 17th Century Old Masters Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk, Paper
Saint Jerome by Amand-Durand after Albrecht Durer
By Charles Amand Durand
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Albrecht Dürer, After by Amand Durand, German (1471 - 1528)
Title: Saint Jerome
Year: 1873
Medium: Heliogravure
Size: 9 x 7.25 in. (22.86 x 18.42 ...
Category
1870s Old Masters Figurative Prints
Materials
Engraving
Study of a Man, Old Master Drawing, Figure, Roman Study, Lombard
Located in Greven, DE
Old Master Drawing by the Circle of Lambert Lombard. Drawing/ Study of a Man in Renaissance Style, later signed "F. Floris".
Study of a Man
Lombard li...
Category
16th Century Renaissance Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Handmade Paper
$2,861 Sale Price
20% Off
More Ways To Browse
Master Ink Art
Antique Drawing Book
Grand Masters
Old Master Drawings Framed
The Hamilton Collection
Don Johns
Don Brown Drawing
Old Antique Bibles
Skull Drawing
18th Century Pen
Naked Man Painting
18th Century Bible
Antique Pen Rest
Muscular Man
Don Quixote Painting
Antique Bible Book
18th Century Pen And Ink
Saint Jerome