1770s Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Despite its explicit content, this intimate scene conveys a sense of tenderness and romantic love characteristic of Chinese erotic art. Known as “spring palace paintings,” these ink and watercolor illustrations imagined the sensual delights of courtly life. Taken from an album of erotic paintings, this framed leaf departs from a tradition of depicting lovers in risqué outdoor settings by picturing an amorous coupling in a distinctly Qing-dynasty interior. The uniquely detailed surroundings shed light on the prevailing aesthetic tastes in decor and furniture of 19th-century China. Note the carved wooden headrest, blue and white censer...

Signed lower right, "Dignimont" for André Dignimont (French, 1891-1965) and painted circa 1950. A substantial, mid-century interior showing a man and ...

A beautiful 17th century design for a confessional from the most important woodshop in Bergamo. Pen and grayish black ink on cream laid paper, 11 1/8 x 7 1/4 inches (283 x 185 mm), ...

A fascinating orientalist art deco composition. Pen and brownish brown ink with gouache on cream wove paper, 9 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (245 x 190 mm), the full sheet. In good condition w...

GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI, known as GUERCINO (1591-1666) Leaning Nude Man (recto); Kneeling Man, Hands Tied Behind His Back (verso) Black chalk heightened with white on light blu...

The Galli Bibiena Dynasty and European Courts. The Galli Bibiena family, renowned Italian artists and scenographers, served the most distinguished European courts, including those ...

Sleeping Boy is an original modern artwork realized in the 16th century by Giovanni Fontana. Ivory colored sheet attached on an ivory colored cardboard (...

"My Fair Lady" 1958 West End Theatre Costume Drawing Mid 20th Century Modern Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980) "My Fair Lady," Pen and ink on paper. ...

"Steel Factory" Cuban Mid 20th Century Modern Drawing WPA Latin Art Industrial Ink on paper. 12 x 19 inches. Pogolotti lived in Paris in the 1930s. The drawing here comes from the collection of his Parisian ophthalmologist, Dr. Prokopenko . Unfortunately, the artist lost his eyesight in 1938. Marcelo Pogolotti (1902–1988) was a Cuban painter...

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...

Mid Century Italian watercolour on paper of a tablescape, signed and dated (1956) bottom right. The artist is currently unknown. Presented under glass in original, period plain woo...

"Good Health Week" American Scene Modern Social Realism Mid- 20th Century WPA Era Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) Good Health Week – b/w 10 ½ x 15 1/2 inches I...