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Period: 18th Century and Earlier
Woman - Drawing on Paper - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Woman is an original drawing, realized by Anonymous artists of the XVIII century.
The state of preservation of the artwork is good, but with extensive foxing.
The artwork represent...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Hercules vanquishing a drakaina (half‑woman, half‑serpent)
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Circle of Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Venice 1727 – Madrid 1804)
Hercules vanquishing a drakaina (half‑woman, half‑serpent) – interpreted either as Echidna or a personified Hydra
c. ...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
France 18th Century, Pastorale (Arcadian Landscape), original drawing
Located in Paris, FR
France 18th Century,
Pastorale (Arcadian Landscape)
Black chalk and heightenings of white gouache on blue-grey paper
19 x 31 cm
Framed : 34.5 x 46.5 cm
The atmosphere and the subje...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
Vue de Macerata et de sa Campagne - drawing by J. P. Verdussen - 1742
Located in Roma, IT
China ink and watercolour on paper.
Some foxing, otherwise very good condition.
Titled and dated.
Includes passepartout.
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Figure of Woman - Original Ink Drawing - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Figure is an original drawing in china ink on paper.
Good Conditions.
Applied on a Passepartout.
The artwork represents a figure of a woman through deft and smooth strokes, delica...
Category
Modern 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Venus
Located in London, GB
Richard Westall, R.A. (1765-1836)
Venus
signed and dated ‘R. Westall 1794’ (lower right)
pencil and watercolour, with white heightening
image 11 ⅞ x 15 ¼ in. (30.2 x 38.7 cm.)
frame 22 ⅛ x 26 in. (56.3 x 66.1 cm.)
Provenance:
Private Collection, UK.
Venus (1794) was produced during a highly creative and defining period of Richard Westall’s career and artistic development, when from 1790-95 the ambitious young artist was sharing a house at 57 Greek Street, Soho, with his friend Sir Thomas Lawrence, the future President of the Royal Academy.
Whilst lodging together, Lawrence became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1791, Westall the following year, and both were elected full-members in 1794 – the year Lawrence was appointed Painter-in-Ordinary to His Majesty King George III. Westall was to become Queen Victoria’s first Drawing Master, before her ascension to the throne.
It was in this very year, 1794 - as the two young artists became Royal Academicians - that the present watercolour was executed, and it is exciting to speculate that Lawrence would have examined and given his thoughts on the work.
Highly comparable to The Wallace Collection’s Nymph and cupids (c.1793, cat. P757), acquired by Francis Seymour-Conway (1777-1842), 3rd Marquess of Hertford, (who hung it in his bedroom), the mid-1790s saw Westall exhibiting and returning to similar subject-matter on a number of occasions. Two works with titles that could be applied to the present picture were exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1794 (no. 341 Nymph and Cupids) and 1795 (no. 620, A Wood–nymph and Cupids). However, a print after the watercolour, engraved by F. Screen, entitles the piece Venus.
Westall is regarded as a great virtuoso watercolourist, and Venus is evidence of the young artist’s mastery of the medium. Indeed, it is unusual to find a watercolour of comparable age so well preserved, and retaining such vibrancy - the superb condition providing an insight into his exceptional brushwork and use of colour.
Venus languishes luxuriously on her woodland bed, the trunk of a tree resembling a curtain, while three winged putti play beside her, seeming to gesture to someone in the woods. Cupid draws back his bow and aims an arrow of love, perhaps about to pierce the heart of a hunting nobleman, or unsuspecting woodcutter. The striking contrast between the almost luminescent nymph, with the deep, rich, luxuriant forest, gives the glade an alluring sense of mystery – perhaps an allusion to the mysteries of the heart, a pre-occupation with Romanticism, central to the emerging thought of the time. Westall can be classified as one of the great Romantic artists, and even painted Lord Byron’s portrait...
Category
Romantic 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
La Porcellana (A Market Scene of Porcelain Vendors)
Located in Greenwich, CT
An old master drawing that can live in a very contemporary environment! Remarkable use of line and expression - should be enjoyed in an important spot - can grace a kitchen or livin...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper, Graphite
Drawing Ink 16th 17th Flemish DE VOS Religious Martyrdom of James The Great
Located in PARIS, FR
Flemish school from the beginning of the 17th century (Circle of Martin DE VOS) Drawing Pen and wash 38 x 32 cm (58 x 52 cm with the frame) Inscription "Martin de Vos" Excellent cond...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Handmade Paper
Landscape - Pencil on Paper by J. P. Verdussen - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape is an original drawing is realized by Jan Peter Verdussen.
The artwork has some folds and foxings and is repaired on the middle line.
The artwork represents a landscape.
...
Category
Modern 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Rome/Tevere - Pencil and Watercolor Drawing - 1741
Located in Roma, IT
Rome is a beautiful artwork realized by Jan Peter Verdussen in 1741.
In good condition except for some pencil marks and traces of sealing wax on the back and some diffused foxings.
...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
Johann Weinmann: 18th Century Engravings of Sunflowers, Set of 4, Framed
Located in Richmond, GB
A complete set of four hand-coloured mezzotint engravings of sunflowers from: "Phytanthoza Iconographia", c1739, presented in hand-made, parcel-gilt, ebonised and decalcomania frame...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
Landscape - Original Pencil on Paper by J. P. Verdussen - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape is an original drawing in pencil on ivory-colored paper realized by Jan Peter Verdussen.
The artwork has some folds and foxing and is repair on the middle line.
The artwo...
Category
Modern 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Landscape - Pencil Drawing by J. P. Verdussen - Mid-18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape is a beautiful drawing in pencil on ivory-colored paper realized by Jan Peter Verdussen.
The artwork has some folds and foxings. The artwork represents a landscape.
Inclu...
Category
Modern 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Johann Weinmann: c.18th Engravings of Fruit in Decalcomania Frames
Located in Richmond, GB
Hand-coloured mezzotint engravings from: ""Phytanthoza Iconographia"", c1739, presented in hand-made parcel-gilt, ebonised and decalcomania frames.
Johann Weinmann (1683-1741), a G...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
Sleeping Boy - Drawing by Giovanni Fontana - 16th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Sleeping Boy is an original modern artwork realized in the 16th century by Giovanni Fontana.
Ivory colored sheet attached on an ivory colored cardboard (...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pencil
Pantheon - Drawing by Giovanni Fontana - Late 16th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Pantheon is an original drawing realized by the Italian architect Giovanni Fontana (1540-1614) in the late 16th century.
Ivory colored paper attached on an ivory colored sheet.
Inc...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Johann Weinmann: c.18th Engravings of Fruit in Decalcomania Frames
Located in Richmond, GB
Hand-coloured mezzotint engravings from: ""Phytanthoza Iconographia"", c1739, presented in hand-made parcel-gilt, ebonised and decalcomania frames.
Johann Weinmann (1683-1741), a G...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
18th Century Roman School , A Palazzo with antiques, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
18th Century Roman School
A Palazzo with antiques
Brown ink and pen, brown ink wash on paper
12.5 x 20 cm
Framed : 28,5 x 35.5
This nice drawing represents a genre scene, with a nobleman, priests, a mother and her children...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Attrib. Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) - Fine 18th Century Watercolour, In Reeds
Located in Corsham, GB
A delicate 18th century sepia watercolour depicting an angelic child praying amongst reeds. Beautifully presented in a period gilt frame with sgraffito decoration. Much of the artist...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
The Death of Coresus
By Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE
(Tournus 1725 - 1805 Paris)
The Death of Coresus, circa 1750
Pen and brown ink, black ink tips, gray wash on black chalk, 455 x 385 cm
Bears on the reverse in ...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
18th Century Watercolour - Jacob and the Pharaoh
Located in Corsham, GB
A charming watercolour interpretation of chapter forty-seven verse seven of Genesis where Joseph presents his father Jacob to the Pharaoh. The artist captures the religious figures o...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
French School Of The 18th century, An Ancient Shipyard, Drawing
Located in Paris, FR
French school of the 18th century
An ancient shipyard or building site (?)
Ink and ink wash on paper
17.5 x 23 cm
In a modern frame 32 x 37 cm
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777) A Mythological scene, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777)
A Mythological scene
Pen and black ink on paper
Bears an old inscription with the name of the artist on the lower left bo...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Putti in a Landscape, Putti playing, flowers, Berchet, French Art, Old Master
By Pierre Berchet
Located in Greven, DE
Pierre Berchet, Drawing of Putti playing in a landscape,
Painter of decorative history subjects; trained under La Fosse; worked in France and during the 1690s...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Handmade Paper
Fenzoni, Painting AND preparatorial Drawing, John the Baptist, Italy Renaissance
By Ferrau Fenzoni
Located in Greven, DE
The painting and the preparatory drawing are offered together.
Provenance
Private collection, Germany, Trier, c. 1980- 2013
Saint John the Baptist
Brown ink and wash over red chalk on oatmeal paper
31 x 20.5 cm
Inscribed: „Ferrau Fenzonio da Faenza invt. esque … imp. da Fran. Villamena …“.
bears the collector's mark of Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950; Lugt 2274a) on a tiny label glued to the verso
On the reverse is a partial drawing of a Pieta, pricked for transfer.
Provenance
New York, Doyle, 14. October 2015, No. 6
The painting and the preparatory drawing resemble the composition of an engraving after Ferraù Fenzoni by Francesco Villamena. Drawing, engraving and painting are almost identical, except for minor differences. Even the measurements nearly correspond: painting (32 x 25,5 cm), drawing (30 x 20,5 cm), engraving (31,1 x 23,5 cm).
Dr. Guiseppe Scavizzi confirmed the attribution of the present panting to Fenzoni and he dates it to c. 1590.
The inscription on the drawing reads “Ferrau Fenzonio da Faenza invt. esque. . . imp. da Fran: Villamena . . .”. The engraving’s inscription also lists place and date “Ferra Fensionius inventor/F. Villamoena sculpsit Rome/Aspectu fruitur… antra puer/cum Privilegio… 1613”.
Interestingly, the engraving is not mirrored as it is in most printing processes. Painting, drawing and engraving are not reversed but the same. It is remarkable to note that there are further paintings by Fenzoni which were engraved in the same order and not reverted. They also show strong parallels regarding the compositions and the measurements (see for example “Deposition of Christ” ).
Ferraù Fenzoni was an Italian painter mainly active in Todi. He is also called Il Faenzone after his birthplace (Faenza). He apprenticed in Rome during the papacy of Gregory XIII and contributed to numerous fresco cycles under pope Sixtus V, such as the Loggia della Benedizioni in the Lateran Palace, the frescoes on the walls and vaults of the Scala Santa of the adjacent Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, and the decoration in the Sistine library. His expressive canvases straddle the styles of Mannerism and Baroque. In 1594, he moved to Todi. A “Last Judgement” by him is housed in the cathedral of Todi. He returned to Faenza in 1599, where he decorated chapels in the cathedral from 1612 to 1616. In 1622, he completed a “Deposition”, now in the local Pinacoteca. In 1640, Fenzoni was named “cavaliere dello speron d’oro” by Cardinal Colonna and, on 25th April 1634, he was nominated vicar and “castellano of Granarolo”.
Fenzoni‘s style is characterized by a mixture of the Mannerism of the Northern Netherlands and the Italian Baroque.
Saint John the Baptist, Old Master, 17th Century, By Fenzoni, Religious Scene, Rome Art...
Category
Mannerist 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Handmade Paper
Study after Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment”
By Michelangelo Buonarroti
Located in New York, NY
Italian School, 16th Century
Provenance:
Private Collection, New York
This intriguing drawing is a study by an anonymous 16th-century Italian artist after a vignette in Michelangelo’s fresco of The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. The altar wall of the Sistine Chapel was already richly decorated when Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint his Last Judgment...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Gouache
Reading Madonna drawing. Red chalk on paper.
By Francesco Fernandi
Located in New York, NY
Inscribed: front, brown ink, bottom left, F. Imperiali pinx…; bottom right, R. Rol..(?). Back, brown ink, top left, Roma, Gune(?) 1742 / F. Impeririali ping…;[illegible] R. deline..(...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk, Handmade Paper
Diana and her nymphs, Bath of Goddess Diana, Gourdaine, Old Master Drawing
By Jean Pierre Norblin de Gourdaine
Located in Greven, DE
Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine (Polish: Jan Piotr Norblin; 15 July 1745 – 23 February 1830) was a Polish-French painter, draughtsman, engraver and caricaturist. Born in France, from 1774 to 1804 he resided in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, where he obtained citizenship.
He is considered one of the most important painters of the Enlightenment in Poland. He achieved great success in Poland. Given many commissions from some of the most notable families of the country, he stayed there for many years, not returning to Paris until the early 19th century. His style showed the influence of Antoine Watteau, and combined the Rococo tradition of charming fêtes galantes and fêtes champêtres with a panorama of daily life and current political events, captured with journalistic accuracy. He created a gallery of portraits of representatives of all social classes in the last years of the Polish–Lithuanian...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Handmade Paper
Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Salvatore Rosa
(Naples 1615 - 1673 Rome)
Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy
Pen and brown ink, brown wash over black chalk, on paper
7 x 5 cm
Bears the stamps of collections on the...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
France 18th Century, The Surprised Lovers, original drawing
Located in Paris, FR
France circa 1770
Two lovers surprised in bed
Black chalk on paper
13 x 17 cm
Modern frame : 34 x 38 cm
This drawing had been attributed to Gabriel de Saint Aubin (1724-1780). It's...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
The Great Duel 18th Century
Located in Wiscasett, ME
A truly rare and remarkable scene of hundreds of swordsmen meeting in a towns square. The circle is closed around the two in the duel, each of whom have drawn blood. German school 18...
Category
Folk Art 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
A Coachman - 18th Century British Figure watercolour drawing by Paul Sandby
By Paul Sandby
Located in London, GB
PAUL SANDBY
(1731-1809)
Study of a Coachman
Pencil and brown wash, shaped
Framed
16.5 by 9 cm., 6 ½ by 3 ½ in.
(frame size 32 by 22.5 cm., 12 ½ by 9 in.)
Provenance:
Iolo Williams;
Private collection.
Exhibited:
Sudbury, Gainsborough House, 1979.
Sandby was born in Nottingham and moved to London in 1745. He and his brother Thomas first worked in the military drawing department at the Tower of London, later working on a military survey of new roads and bridges in the Highlands. On leaving this post in 1751 he spent some time living with his brother who had been appointed Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park. There he assisted his brother, and made a series of drawings of the castle, town and neighbourhood. In 1760 he settled in London where he contributed to the first exhibition of the Society of Artists where he regularly exhibited until the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768, becoming one of its founder members. In same year he was appointed chief drawing...
Category
Realist 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Studies of a kneeling female figure, an arm, a hand, and a head in profile
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Studio of Carlo Maratti (or Maratta)
Camerano 1625 – Rome 1713
Studies of a kneeling female figure, an arm, a hand, and a head in profile
Red chalk on paper
43.4 x 26.6 cm
Provena...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
Head of a Cheerful Man Wearing a Cap
Located in New York, NY
Watermark: the arms of Amsterdam
Provenance:
Christie’s, Amsterdam, 1 December 1986, lot 46; where acquired by:
Private Collection, New York
Literature:
Roger Adolf d’Hulst, “Jordaens Drawings: Supplement II,” Master Drawings, vol. 28, no. 2 (1990), pp. 153-156, no. A237a, fig. 17.
Matías Díaz Padrón, Jacob Jordaens...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Chalk
Study of horse and ox bones
Located in Middletown, NY
Graphite, ink wash and watercolor on handmade laid paper with a large, indistinguishable ovoid watermark with a bunch of grapes, 8 7/16 x 12 5/8 inches (225 x 320 mm), signed in brown ink in the lower left. With the Henry Scipio Reitlinger oval stamp in brown ink on the verso (Lugt 2274a).
The condition of the image and paper is consistent with age, there is minor toning on the recto and some attenuation of the green pigment. The drawing is laid down to an 18th century laid paper support and has a small pencil notation in the lower right corner (modern), and scattered notations in pencil on the verso of the support (also modern, perhaps auction/accession notes). On the paper support is an ink drawing in red and black of what appears to be the floor plan for the wing of a large building. The drawing is top-up, adhered facing the verso of the drawing. The architectural drawing on the support is visible through to the recto of the composition when the sheets are viewed through raking light. There is a small area of stipple point spotting in brown ink on the verso of the support. Examination under black light shows no indication of repairs or additions, expert or otherwise.
Provenance:
Henry Scipio Reitlinger was born in either 1882 or 1885, attended Kings College...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper, Graphite
Landscape - Ink and Watercolor by Verdussen - Mid 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape is an original drawing in ink and watercolor artwork realized by Jan Peeter Verdussen.
Good conditions except some minor stains and folds.
Jan Peeter Verdussen (1700-1767...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Ink
Three studies executed in the Pitti Palace in 1761 by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Located in PARIS, FR
This brilliant study sheet, of which we present here a counterproof, is a souvenir of Fragonard's return journey from Italy. Between April and September 1761, he accompanied the abbot of Saint-Non on his way back to France. Three studies after the masters taken from the Pitti Palace’s gallery in Florence are gathered on this sheet. Although The Ecstasy of Saint Margaret...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Carbon Pencil
Circle of Angelika Kauffmann, Venus and Amor, Arrow and Spindle, Oval Drawing
Located in Greven, DE
Fine drawing in pencil, oval format. Circle of Angelika Kauffmann.
The subject is not clear. It is Amor with his arrows and perhaps Venus with a sp...
Category
Romantic 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Crayon, Handmade Paper
"Spring at Window" 18th Century Antique realism Watercolor painting on Paper
Located in Jacksonville, FL
The painting is signed and dated 1858
Felix Schlesinger (1833-1910) was a German painter known for his charming and detailed portrayals of domestic ...
Category
Realist 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Old Master French Sanguine Drawing of Hercules
Located in Pasadena, CA
Old Master, French School red chalk drawing on paper
Done in Sanguine on paper the nude appear like Hercule . The feel and look of the works while academic studies are very detailed ...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Archival Paper
Consecration of a Church 15th Century English School Illuminated Manuscript
Located in London, GB
English School
15th Century
The Consecration of a Church
Illuminated manuscript on Vellum
Image size: 5 ½ x 5 inches (14 x 12.7 cm)
18th century ornate Tabernacle frame
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Vellum
Johann Weinmann: c.18th Engravings of Fruit in Decalcomania Frames
Located in Richmond, GB
Hand-coloured mezzotint engravings from: ""Phytanthoza Iconographia"", c1739, presented in hand-made parcel-gilt, ebonised and decalcomania frames.
Johann Weinmann (1683-1741), a G...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
Mughal School, 18th century Emperor Jahangir with Empress Nur Jahan on a Tiger
Located in Middletown, NY
circa 1750. Gouache and ink with heightening in gold on brown laid paper, 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (317 x 210 mm), with a floral-motif border painted in blue and gold, the full sheet. With extensive inscriptions in Persian written in black ink on the verso. In good condition with extraordinary color. We see Empress Nur Jahan making an offering to a sage in his hut, as Emperor Jahangir looks on from a tree stand.
Nur Jahan was fond of hunting and often went on hunting tours with her husband and was known for her boldness in hunting ferocious tigers. She is reported to have slain four tigers with six bullets during one hunt. According to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan this feat, inspired a poet to declaim a spontaneous couplet in her honor: "Though Nur Jahan be in form a woman, In the ranks of men she...
Category
Rajput 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Costume drawings for ‘Ambassadeur de Siam’ and ‘La Sultana Reine’
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809)
‘Ambassadeur de Siam’ and ‘La Sultana Reine’
Both titled lower centre, the drawing of the ambassador inscribed with colours intended for the prints, e...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pencil
Johann Weinmann: c.18th Engravings of Fruit in Decalcomania Frames
Located in Richmond, GB
Hand-coloured mezzotint engravings from: ""Phytanthoza Iconographia"", c1739, presented in hand-made parcel-gilt, ebonised and decalcomania frames.
Johann Weinmann (1683-1741), a G...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
The Flight into Egypt
Located in New York, NY
Inscribed: 3. una Madonna che va in Egitto, verso, and Madonna che va in Egitto, recto
Provenance:
Private Collection, UK, since 1999
This expressive and boldly executed drawing is the work of Luca...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk, Ink, Pen, Paper
Mughal School, 18th cent – Emperor Jahangir & Empress Nur Jahan on a Tiger Hunt
Located in Middletown, NY
A beautiful composition depicting Empress Nur Jahan on a tiger hunt, an act of feminism.
Circa 1750. Gouache and ink with heightening in gold on brown laid paper, 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (317 x 210 mm), with a floral-motif border painted in blue and oxblood, the full sheet. With extensive inscriptions in Persian written in black ink on the verso. In good condition with overall toning and minor creasing, all consistent with age. The color is rich and and fresh with bright yellow illumination. In the distance we see the Jahangir Mahal Agra, as well as a sage meditating in his hut. A beautiful composition.
Nur Jahan was fond of hunting and often went on hunting tours with her husband and was known for her boldness in hunting ferocious tigers. She is reported to have slain four tigers with six bullets during one hunt. According to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan this feat, inspired a poet to declaim a spontaneous couplet in her honor: "Though Nur Jahan be in form a woman, In the ranks of men she...
Category
Rajput 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Judith and Salome, a pair of oil paintings on canvas by Francesco Conti
Located in PARIS, FR
This widely referenced pair of paintings is one of Francesco Conti’s most successful productions. Francesco Conti is one of the finest painters of 18th-century Florence. In the shimmering colors typical of his best work, he represents two opposite characters from the Bible: the virtuous Judith, whose courage saves her people by cutting off the head of the invader Holofernes, and the depraved Salome, who under the influence of her mother becomes responsible for the beheading of the prophet John the Baptist.
The artist's talent lies in his ability to treat these two macabre subjects with a light touch, presenting us with two attractive women who seem to twirl with glee amidst the severed heads...
1. Francesco Conti, the “Florentine Tiepolo”
Francesco Conti is a major painter of the Florentine school of the 18th century; he can even probably be considered, along with Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (1692-1768), as one of the two main painters of the second quarter of the Florentine 18th century.
Born in Florence in 1682, Francesco Conti began his apprenticeship in the workshop of Simone Pignoni (1611 - 1698), a disciple of Francesco Furini; he was also influenced by the Venetian Sebastiano Ricci. A protégé of Marquis Riccardi, he accompanied him to Rome between 1699 and 1705, where he frequented Carlo Maratta's studio. He settled permanently in Florence in 1705.
Painted exclusively on canvas, the majority of his work consists of religious subjects, altarpieces or private devotional works. It is likely that Conti himself was a devout churchgoer, as evidenced by his affiliation, in the third decade of the eighteenth century, to the Society of the Disciples of Saint-John-the-Baptist, and his entry, at the end of his life, into the fraternity of the Venerable Society of the Holy Trinity.
In Florence, Conti worked for the Grand Duchy's major patrons, including the last Medici - in particular Giangastone and Annamaria Luisa, Electress Palatine - and confirmed his role as a reference painter under the Lorraine Regency, as master of the Public Drawing School, which was closely linked to the institute responsible for the manufacture of semi-precious stone mosaics, then located in the Uffizi complex.
Matteo Marangoni, an art critic of the early 20th century, praised his "brushwork full of elegance and true spirit of the 18th century", pointing out that Conti was "probably one of the best colorists" of the Florentine school of his time. These two characteristics led the art historian Paolo dal Poggetto to nickname him the "Florentine Tiepolo".
2. Judith and Salome, two biblical characters opposing each other
These two paintings form a pair presenting two biblical episodes, which have in common the depiction of a "heroine" carrying the severed head of a man.
While the Salome episode might at first appear to be an echo of the Old Testament story of Judith, each character is the exact opposite of the other. Judith, whose story is told in the Book of Judith, is a beautiful young widow from Bethulia who, accompanied by her maid, went into the camp of the invading Assyrians and won the confidence of Holofernes, the general commanding the enemy army. Invited to a great feast on the fourth evening, she took advantage of Holofernes' drunkenness to cut off his head. “She went up to the bedpost near Holofernes’ head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to his bed, took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength today, O Lord God of Israel!” Then she struck his neck twice with all her might, and cut off his head. Next she rolled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts. Soon afterward she went out and gave Holofernes’ head to her maid, who placed it in her food bag...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Sketch of Three Figures
Located in London, GB
Benjamin Robert Haydon
1786 - 1846
Sketch of Three Figures
Pen and ink on paper,
Image size: 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches (25 x 20 cm)
Acid Free mount, original frame
Provenance
Private Col...
Category
English School 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pen
Study of a Fate at mid-body, a red chalk attributed to Giovanni da San Giovanni
Located in PARIS, FR
This spectacular red chalk drawing depicts an elderly woman, her eyes bulging, her hand stretched out towards the sky. This disturbing character, who seems close to dementia, and the elongation of her arm with its Mannerist overtones, plunge us into the Florentine artistic milieu of the first half of the 17th century. The proximity of this drawing to some characters in the fresco in the Pitti Palace representing The Muses, Poets and Philosophers chased from Parnassus, the last masterpiece of Giovanni da San Giovanni, leads us to propose an attribution to this artist and a dating of around 1635-1636.
1. Giovanni da San Giovanni, the painter of contradiction
We take here the title of the monography dedicated to the artist by Anna Banti in 1977, which remains the reference book for this artist. The son of a notary, Giovanni Mannozzi, known as Giovanni da San Giovanni, abandoned his studies to go to Florence at the age of sixteen, where he entered the studio of Matteo Rosselli (1578 - 1650) around 1609 and enrolled in the Academy of Drawing Arts in 1612. Around 1615 he produced his first known works, mainly frescoes for the city's tabernacles. He became famous in Florence for his originality, combining an obsessive application to the study of drawing and the reading of poetry and history with a disheveled appearance. Between 1619 and 1620 he decorated the facade of the Antella Palace in Piazza Santa Croce, a decoration that still partly survives today.
The death of Cosimo II in 1621 put an end to the Florentine building activity and Giovanni da San Giovanni left for Rome to find other sponsors with the painter Francesco Furini...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
Three drawings by François Boucher in a mounting by Jean-Baptiste Glomy
Located in PARIS, FR
We would like to thank Juliette Parmentier-Courreau of the Custodia Foundation for her welcome and support during the consultation of Glomy’s Journal des Ouvrages.
This spectacularly large "feuille de desseins ajustés" commissioned by François Boucher from Jean-Baptiste Glomy is emblematic of the painter's art and mastery of rocaille. It is also fully representative of the taste of this period in the field of decorative arts. The largest of these three drawings, placed at the bottom of the composition, is particularly interesting: dating from around 1756, it constitutes a modello (apparently unpublished) for the frontispiece of the "Catalogue des tableaux de Monsieur de Julienne"), preserved in the Morgan Library in New York.
1. François Boucher, the master of French rocaille
The extraordinary career of Francois Boucher was unmatched by his contemporaries in versatility, consistency and output. For many, particularly the writers and collectors who led the revival of interest in the French rococo during the last century, his sensuous beauties and plump cupids represent the French eighteenth century at its most typical. His facility with the brush, even when betraying the occasional superficiality of his art, enabled him to master every aspect of painting – history and mythology, portraiture, landscape, ordinary life and, as part of larger compositions, even still life. He had been trained as an engraver, and the skills of a draftsman, which he imbued in the studio of Jean-Francois Cars (1661 – 1738), stood him in good stead throughout his career; his delightful drawings are one of the most sought-after aspects of his oeuvre.
As a student of Francois Lemoyne (1688 - 1737), he mastered the art of composition. The four years he spent in Italy, from 1727-1731, educated him in the works of the masters, classics and history, that his modest upbringing had denied him.
On his return to Paris in 1734, he gained full membership of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with his splendid Rinaldo and Armida (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Although, throughout his career, he occasionally painted subjects taken from the Bible, and would always have considered himself first as a history painter, his own repertoire of heroines, seductresses, flirtatious peasant girls and erotic beauties was better suited to a lighter, more decorative subject matter. His mastery of technique and composition enabled him to move from large scale tapestry...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk, Ink
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
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
Due ritratti figurativi aristocratici pastelli su pergamena primi del XIX secolo
Located in Florence, IT
Sul cartoncino applicato nella cornice è riportata l'annotazione, a penna e in grafia Kurrent, "Urgroßvater Ludwig Fr(ei)h(e)r(r) von Keller" "Urgroßmutter ...
Category
Other Art Style 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Parchment Paper, Pastel, Cardboard
The Assumption of the Virgin
Located in New York, NY
Provenance:
Unidentified collector’s mark “D.G.R,” lower right (Lugt 757b)
Wilhelm Suida (1877–1959), New York; by descent to:
Robert L. and Bertina Suida Manning, New York, until 1996
Private Collection, USA
This impressive drawing of the Assumption of the Virgin is the work of the Genoese artist Giovanni Battista Paggi. The son of a nobleman, Paggi received a humanist education and was a self-taught artist. According to Paggi’s first biographer, Raffaele Soprani, it was only after encountering Luca...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pen
The Introduction, French School, 18th century
Located in Middletown, NY
In this charming scene a maid appears bashful as she is introduced by her mother to the shepherd’s son.
Ink and wash on hand made, cool-toned cream laid paper, 6 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches...
Category
French School 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper
Silvio and Dorinda, a drawing by Leonaert Bramer, Vermeer's first master
Located in PARIS, FR
This finely executed drawing in pen and wash is typical of the work of Leonaert Bramer, one of the most fascinating yet little-known artists of 17th-century Holland.
In a nocturnal ...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Gouache, Laid Paper, Pen
Italian Old Master Ink & Wash Drawing St. Anne & The Virgin Mary with Cherubs
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Pietro Fancelli (Italian 1764 - 1850)
bio details attached to the frame
'St. Anne & The Virgin'
ink with watercolor wash on paper, framed
framed: 22 x 16 inches
image: 11 x 6.5 inche...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Theatre Scene, Opera, Old Master Drawing, Griselidis, Mallet, French Art
Located in Greven, DE
Unknown Artist, French School 18th Century, Circle of Mallet? Scene taken from the Decamerone.
Old Master Drawing
Category
Romantic 18th Century and Earlier Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Cardboard
