Unknown

18th century French oriental battle scene skirmish drawing

Very rare preparatory drawing for a high jewellery parure in gold; diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. Gouache on tracing paper, signed. It is annotated ...

This opulent 17th-century Italian still-life captures the abundance and refinement of the Baroque era, presenting a feast for the senses. The composition features an array of ripe, s...

Black chalk and graphite on light weight cream wove paper, 16 1/8 x 11 1/4 inches, (410 x 286 mm), the full sheet. Signed, titled, and dated in sepia ink in the lower-center sheet area. With horizontal folds approximately 1-inch from the sheet edge at each of the four sheets. The drawing appears to have been folded at the sheet edges to fit into a frame. Finn mac Cumail (or mac Umaill), often anglicized Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is the leader of the Fianna bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer and poet. He is said to have a magic thumb that bestows him with great wisdom. He is often depicted hunting with his hounds Bran and Sceólang, and fighting with his spear and sword. Fionn MacCumhail was transformed into the character "Fingal" in James Macpherson's poem cycle Ossian (1760), which Macpherson claimed was translated out of discovered Ossianic poetry written in the Scottish Gaelic language. Fionn MacCumhail features heavily in modern Irish literature. Most notably he makes several appearances in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake...

An exceptional ink, wash and graphite portrait of a gentleman by Henri-Joseph Hesse, dating from circa 1820, the time of the Bourbon restoration in France. It depicts a dashing figur...