Old Masters Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Woman is an original watercolor artwork realized in the XIX century by Gaetano Dura. Good conditions except for yellowing of the paper, some folds on the higher and right margin, a...

Watercolour on paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Ballo de' Zampognari" (Dance of Pipers), hand-signed on lower-left margin. Very good conditions except for some ripples on the lower ma...

Mythological subject is a precious original drawing (black chalk, brush, and watercolor ink on ivory colored paper). Unsigned. Inscription: "Disegnato dal P. e Scotti ricavato da que...

Garden's Flowers is a beautiful artwork realized by Jan Peter Verdussen. In good condition. Not signed. Passepartout included ( 48.8 x 33.8 cm). The artwork represents a Garden's...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1828. Representing a woman in typical Italian costumes of XIX century. Good conditions with some light stains. The year of composition is hand-wri...

Galesso di Resina casale is an original gouache drawing on paper realized by Michela De Vito, Naples. Hand-signed and titled, on the bottom center. Good conditions.

Virgin on a Winged Cart is a brown-ink drawing with watercolor interventions on paper made by an anonymous artist of the Neoclassical school (Second half of 18th century). From the ...

Costume of Napoli is an original Ink and Watercolour drawing on ivory-colored stuck on paper, 1830 c.a. Signed. Image Dimensions: 24.5 x 15 cm. The original title is written at the...

Costume di Castellone is an original watercolour on ivory-colored paper made by the old master Michela De Vito in 1820 ca. Hand-titled "Costume di Castellone", with an autograph ca...

English School early 19th century, Portrait of two children, Pencil and light heightenings of white and red gouache 29.5 x 23 cm In quite good condition : the pape is yellowed by t...

Watercolour on ivory colored and watermarked paper"J. Whatm Turkey M.", 1820 c.a. Beautiful watercolour representing a typical Italian scene of ordinary life in XIX century: people...

Beautiful watercolor on ivory-colored paper called Costume di Capracolla, realized by the Italian artist Michela De Vito in 1820 ca. Hand-titled "Costume di Capracolla" with a hand-...

Watercolour. Hand-Numbered "312" lower-right on margin. In very good condition except a little stain on the high left corner. Wonderful Watercolour drawing by Jan Peeter Verdussen, s...

Gioncataro is an amazing original artwork, watercolour on ivory-colored paper, realized by the talented artist Michela De Vito in 1820 ca. Hand-titled "Gioncataro" in pencil on the ...

Costume of Cajazzo is an original gouache drawing on paper realized by Michela De Vito, Naples. Hand-signed, on the bottom right. Titled on the lower center. Good conditions, exce...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Villa pianezza" with a caption "Provincia dell'Aquila nel Regno di Napoli" in black ink on lower margin at the ...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Representing a woman in typical Italian costumes of XIX century. Good conditions with burnished margins and some stains. Very beautiful...

Watercolour on paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Zampognari che fanno la Novena di Natale" (Bagpipers Playing During Christmas Time), hand-signed on lower-right margin. Very good condi...

Speech is an original and unique drawing in ink on paper realized by Jan Peter Verdussen, with sketches on the rear. The State of preservation is very good with the traces of time. ...

Watercolor on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Fraine" with a caption "Provincia d'Abruzzo nel Regno di Napoli" in black ink on lower margin at the center. Han...

Soft Drink Seller is an original gouache drawing on paper realized by Michela De Vito, Naples. Titled on the bottom center. The work is glued on a cardboar...

Female Nude is an original modern artwork realized in the 1940s by Georges Isaul (Argenteuil, 1882 - 1963). Original ink drawing on paper. Hand-signed in pen by the artist on the ...

Watercolor on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Craco" with a caption "Provincia di Basilicata nel Regno di Napoli" in black ink on lower margin at the center. ...

Drink Seller (Venditore di Bibite) is an original gouache drawing on paper realized by Michela De Vito, Naples. Hand-signed on the lower center. Titled on the lower center. The wor...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a.. Hand-titled "Costume di Cajazzo", with autograph caption black ink "Provincia Terra di Lavoro nel Regno di Napoli" on lower margin at the center. Representing a woman with baby...

Woman In Costume is an original watercolor on ivory-colored paper, realized by Michela De Vito in the first half of XIX century. Good conditions exc...

Wonderful watercolor on ivory-colored paper called Costume di Zaccanopoli made by Michela De Vito in 1820 ca. Hand-titled Costume di Zaccanopoli with autograph notes in black ink "P...

Eremita Camandolese is the title of a beautiful watercolour on ivory-colored paper by the old master Michela De Vito in 1820 ca. Hand-titled "Eremita Camandolese", in black ink on t...

Galesso di Resina Casale is an original gouache drawing on paper realized by Michela De Vito, Naples. Titled, on the bottom center. The work is glued on a brownish paper. Good cond...

Louis Lesueur (1746-1803) A Fantasy Landscape with ancient ruins, 1789, signed and dated "L Lesueur 1789" in the bottom centre Pen and ink and ink wash on paper 14.8 x 22 cm In goo...

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...

The drawings showcase the beauty of the black women on one hand and also reflect the intimacy animals possess with females, especially horses, and princesses in royalty. They are muc...

Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777)  A Banquet scene Pen and black ink, brown ink wash on paper Diameter 21 cm In good condition In a modern frame under glass 30 x 30 cm Louis Feli...

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 sk...

François Boitard (1670-1715) Abraham and the Three Angels, Signed lower left "F Boitard (...) fecit (...)" 28 x 44 cm Pen and ink on yellow prepared paper...

After the restoration of the Saint-John chapel’s frescoes at the Saint-Severin church in Paris in 2022, the drawing presented here is a moving testimony to their creative process. It...

Planimetry of the Vatican After G.L. Bernini is an original China Ink realized by an unknown artist in mid-17th century. Good condition except for some spoiled yellowed paper on mar...

Porters is an original gouache drawing on paper realized by Michela De Vito, Naples. Titled on the lower center. Good conditions, applied on paper, with a cutting at the top right....

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, early XIX century. Hand-titled and signature in black ink (both not readable)on lower margin. Representing a woman in traditional Calabrese costum...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-signed on lower-right. Hand-titled "Costume di Ciociara", with autograph caption black ink "Provincia di Basilicata nel Regno di Na...

Watercolour on paper stuck on grey cardboard, 1820 c.a. Wonderful watercolour both for the drawing and for the fineness of the colours representing a typical Italian scene of ordina...

In this lively and fresh drawing, probably taken from one of the artist's notebooks, Pajou presents us with a composition freely inspired by antiquity, as a souvenir of a visit to th...

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...

Andrea Boscoli (Florence, Italy, 1564 – Rome, Italy, 1608) Title: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘵𝘺, 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘰 𝘥𝘢 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘰 Medium: Pen and brow...

This powerful pen and brown ink wash drawing is a study for an altarpiece depicting The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew. Signed and dated 1604, it was painted at the end of his life b...

This masterly frontispiece study, executed with a very sure hand, testifies to the survival of the great Baroque taste in 18th century Venice. It could be one of the very last works by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini: the few lines that cross the papal arms evoke those of Benedict XIV, who became pope in 1740, one year before the artist's death. 1. Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini and the European influence of Venetian history painting in the 18th century Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini was born in Venice in 1675 and trained in the studio of the Milanese painter Paolo Pagani (1655 - 1716). Pagani, who had been living in Venice since 1667, took him to Moravia and Vienna from 1690 to 1696. After a stay in Rome from 1699 to 1701, Pellegrini married Angiola Carriera in 1704, the sister of the great pastelist Rosalba Carriera. From 1708 onwards, Pellegrini left Venice and began an extensive tour of Europe: he worked in England between 1708 and 1713, where he met great success, particularly at Kimbolton Castle and Castle Howard. He then worked in Germany and the Netherlands, then in Bohemia and Austria, before returning briefly to England in 1719. In 1720 he was in Paris where he decorated the ceilings of the Royal Bank for John Law...

Arriving in Rome in June 1735 as a resident at the Royal Academy, Pierre was unable to attend the Winter Carnival festivities of 1735, which he nevertheless immortalised in an engrav...