Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino)

Leaning Nude Man (recto); Kneeling Man, Hands Tied Behind His Back (verso)

circa 1625

Italian School, late 16th century Head of a Man and Écorché Studies of Arms Red chalk on laid paper, 21 x 11 cm Provenance: Collection of Michael Jaffé CBE (1923–1997), English art historian and Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Private collection, France This drawing, attributed to the Italian School of the late 16th century, demonstrates the influence of Michelangelo’s approach to anatomy and expression. The sheet combines two distinct studies: an anatomical rendering of arms in the écorché technique, focusing on the musculature and skeletal details, and a head of a man, drawn with careful attention to light and shadow. The use of red chalk lends the work warmth and immediacy, qualities often associated with Renaissance studies of the human form. The écorché studies reflect the Renaissance fascination with anatomy as both an artistic and scientific pursuit. The detailed depiction of the musculature suggests the artist’s interest in understanding the mechanics of the body, a practice heavily influenced by Michelangelo’s drawings...

Constance-Marie Charpentier (1767–1849) Academy Drawing of a Man Black and white chalk on paper 56 x 43 cm Provenance: Private collection Constance-Marie Charpentier, a student of Jacques-Louis David, distinguished herself in late 18th- and early 19th-century Paris as a highly skilled portraitist. Despite the obstacles faced by female artists of her time, Charpentier gained recognition and was even awarded a gold medal at the 1814 Salon—a rare and significant honor. This work, a male nude academy...

Attributed to Jacob JORDAENS (Antwerp 1593–1678) Study of Feet and a Figure Sketch Red and black chalk on laid paper 25.9 × 18.4 cm (10¼ × 7¼ in.) Minor losses, folds, and slight s...

Domenico Maria Canuti (1625–1684) Study of a Seated Satyr, Seen from Behind Red chalk on laid paper with watermark 39 × 26 cm Provenance: Private Collection, France Note: A large ...

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...

Black chalk heightened with white chalk on blue paper, 19cm x 15cm, (32cm x 27cm framed). First exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1904, Philpot was elected as an Academician in 1923. Like many artists of his generation, he enjoyed a comfortable income from portraiture, which enabled him to paint less commercially successful and perhaps more personal subjects. His interest in the male nude and portraits of...

Daniela Astone Scilla 100 x 70 Charcoal on paper framed the size is 120 x 90 with museum glass Daniela Astone works and lives in Florence. For years she was a teacher on the famous...

This Charcoal drawing is made on toned paper with charcoal and chalk. The drawing is framed in a wooden gold frame with passe partout behind Clarity museum glass. The Italian artist Daniela Astone...