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Period: 18th Century and Earlier
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
George Edwards: 18th Century Engravings of Birds
Located in Richmond, GB
George Edwards: ""A History of Uncommon Birds"", 1749-1761.
A prominent English naturalist and ornithologist, George Edwards (1694 -1773) is best known for his work, ""A Natural His...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Engraving
Figures by a River at the Edge of a Wood
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Ferdinand von Kobell (1740–1799)
Figures by a River at the Edge of a Wood
Black chalk, stump and white chalk highlights, on paper
19 x 28.8 cm
Signed and dated lower right: 1777
P...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Jan Goeree (Middelburg 1670 – Amsterdam 1731)
Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam (c. 1724)
Red chalk for the architecture, pen and black ink, grey wash on paper
Composition reversed in preparation for engraving
25 × 17.5 cm
Watermark: Hunting horn, Churchill 318 (dated 1724)
Unsigned
Provenance
Private collection, France
Context & Attribution
Trained in the studio of Gérard de Lairesse, Jan Goeree was among the finest Dutch engravers of the early eighteenth century, celebrated for his architectural views of Amsterdam. This drawing is a preparatory study for an engraving of the same subject now preserved in a major public collection. The final print—slightly larger—closely follows the reversed composition of this sheet.
Subject
In the center of the Gothic nave, five bearers carry a catafalque toward a freshly dug grave—a tribute to the naval heroes often buried in the Nieuwe Kerk. This funerary motif, familiar from Dutch painting (e.g. Emanuel de Witte, 1657), evokes the vanitas theme and the transience of earthly life.
Technical Analysis
Goeree’s use of red chalk for the architecture and ink for the figures reveals his working method: the chalk lines could be used to produce a counterproof restoring the correct orientation of the architecture, while the inked figures remained adjustable before the design was transferred to the copper plate.
Place within the Oeuvre
Drawings of church...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Chalk
Rocky Landscape with Trees and Temple Ruins a drawing by Giulio Parigi (ca 1615)
Located in PARIS, FR
This Rocky Landscape with Trees and the Ruins of a Temple is a drawing by Giulio Parigi, an eclectic and prolific artist of the Medici court. An engraver, architect, furniture and je...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Laid Paper, Pen
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Ink
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
A landscape drawing by Claude Lorrain, with a preliminary sketch on the verso
Located in PARIS, FR
This study presents a typical Roman countryside landscape: an ancient mausoleum in front of which a cart is passing by followed by two peasants. If the technique (a pen drawing on graphite lines, completed with a wash of brown and grey inks) and the signature inevitably evoke the art of Lorrain, we find on the verso of this drawing additional evidences that lead us to consider this unpublished drawing as a work by the master.
The motif of the mausoleum has been taken up in pen on the verso in a technique that can be found in several other drawings by Lorrain. There is also a study of three characters, which can be considered as preparatory to Lorrain’s painting entitled The Port of Ostia with the Embarkation of Saint Paula, leading us to claim this attribution with a dating of around 1639.
1. Claude Lorrain or the perfection of classical landscape in Rome in the 17th century
Claude Gellée was born in 1600 in Chamagne in Lorraine. Orphaned at the age of twelve, he spent a year with his brother in Freiburg, where the latter was a woodcarver. Claude Gellée then probably arrived in Rome in 1613, where he joined the workshop of Agostino Tassi (1580 - 1644) in 1617. Between 1619 and 1620 he studied for two years in Naples in the workshop of Goffredi Wals (who was himself a former pupil of Tassi).
In 1625 he returned to Lorraine for two years where he worked alongside Claude Deruet. He then returned to Rome, a city he never left for the rest of his life (except for short trips to the surrounding countryside).
From 1627 to 1650 he lived in Via Margutta. From 1635 onwards he became a renowned painter and commissions started to pour in. Considered during his lifetime as the most accomplished of the classical landscape painters, his reputation never faded.
Between 1629 and 1635 Le Lorrain often went to the Roman countryside to draw with his friend Joachim von Sandrart (1606 - 1686). He became a member of the Academy of Saint Luke in 1633, while being closely acquainted with the Bentvueghels, this guild which brought together the young Nordic painters active in Rome. In 1643 he joined the Congregation of the Virtuosi. In 1650 he moved to Via Paolina where he lived until his death.
Little is known of his intimate life. He seems to have had a daughter, Agnes, from an ancillary love affair. In 1657/ 1658 she moved in with him. Stricken with gout in 1663, he died in 1682.
2. Description of the drawing; the technique of nature studies
Two peasants are walking behind a horse-drawn cart on a road that winds through ancient tombs. While a rectangular tomb with a columned facade can be seen in the distance, the cart passes an important ancient building. It has a circular shape and its partially ruined façade is decorated with columns. The start of a second floor can...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Pen, Graphite
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
$1,009 Sale Price
20% Off
18th Century Watercolour - A Horse Ride For The Children
Located in Corsham, GB
A charming watercolour showing a mother and father raising a small child onto the back of a horse while three more children sit on a wooden sled pull...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
$394 Sale Price
20% Off
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Ink
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
$426 Sale Price
25% Off
Screaming Face
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
DENYS CALVAERT (Antwerp c. 1540 – 1619 Bologna), ATTRIBUTED TO
Screaming Face
Red chalk on paper
17.5 x 14.5 cm
After 1608
Unsigned
Provenance:
Unidentified collection (Lugt L.2339...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
$25,264
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Gouache
Saint Jerome Praying, with a Landscape in the Background
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
STEFANO DALL’ARZERE
(Padua, circa 1520 – 1570)
Saint Jerome Praying, with a Landscape in the Background
Pen and brown ink, heightened with white over black chalk lines
15.5 x 12 cm...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
$928 Sale Price
20% Off
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Handmade Paper
Ferrau FenzoniFenzoni, Painting AND preparatorial Drawing, John the Baptist, Italy Renaissance, 1590
$28,424 Sale Price
25% Off
Imaginary View of an Italian Port, a signed and dated drawing by Jacobus Storck
Located in PARIS, FR
In this finely executed pen and wash drawing, Jacobus Storck presents us with an imaginary view in an Italian port. The splendor of the buildings (the large sculpted fountain surmoun...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pencil, Pen, Ink
George Edwards: c18th Engravings of Birds in Decalcomania Frames
Located in Richmond, GB
George Edwards: "A History of Uncommon Birds", 1749-1761.
A prominent English naturalist and ornithologist, George Edwards (1694 -1773) is best known for his work, ""A Natural Histo...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Etching
Louis Lesueur (1746-1803) Landscape with ruins, 1789, drawing signed and dated
Located in Paris, FR
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...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Handmade Paper
$3,600 Sale Price
41% Off
Portraits of the Hon. Mary Shuttleworth and Anna Maria, 9th Baroness Forrester
Located in London, GB
THE HON. MARY SHUTTLEWORTH, NÉE COCKBURN (D. 1777)
and her sister
ANNA MARIA, 9TH BARONESS FORRESTER (D. 1808)
Pastel and gouache on paper laid on canvas, on their original backb...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel, Gouache
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
George Edwards: c18th Engravings of Birds in Decalcomania Frames
Located in Richmond, GB
George Edwards: "A History of Uncommon Birds", 1749-1761.
A prominent English naturalist and ornithologist, George Edwards (1694 -1773) is best known for his work, ""A Natural Histo...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Etching
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
$1,383 Sale Price
20% Off
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
Late 17th cent. Drawing of a rider galloping away from the viewer
By Georg Philipp Rugendas the Elder
Located in Greenwich, CT
Late 17th-early18th century Drawing
Pen and brown ink , brush and gray wash on paper
att. to Georg Philipp Rugendas (1666 – 1742)
bears a period ink inscription in bottom margin...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
India Ink, Pen
A bridge over river Oil on canvas British Inscribed William Marlow
Located in London, GB
William Marlow (1740 - 1815)
A bridge over river
Oil on canvas
Inscribed, 'William Marlow' to old label verso
Provenance:
J. Palser & Sons, 27 King Street, London
Dimensions:
(Fra...
Category
English School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Oil
Old Master French Sanguine Drawing of Hercules
Located in Pasadena, CA
Old Master, French School red chalk drawing on paper is not signed .
Done in Sanguine on paper the nude appear like Hercule . The feel and look of the works while academic studies a...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Archival Paper
17th Century Figures Harvesting in a Hilly Landscape
Located in Stockholm, SE
A fine watercolor and sepia drawing of people harvesting in a hilly landscape attributed to Antonio Grano (c.1669-1718). In the front of the image is a shepherd resting against a roc...
Category
Italian School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Study of fourteen birds
Located in Ottikon, CH
Circle of Alexandre Francois Desportes
Study of fourteen birds (Study of fourteen birds)
28.3 x 43.8 cm
Watercolor, pencil, mixed media on paper
Verso:
Faintly legible monogram i...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Mixed Media, Watercolor, Pencil
"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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
George Edwards: 18th Century Engravings of Birds
Located in Richmond, GB
George Edwards: ""A History of Uncommon Birds"", 1749-1761.
A prominent English naturalist and ornithologist, George Edwards (1694 -1773) is best known for his work, ""A Natural His...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Engraving
Georg Philipp I RUGENDAS (1666-1742) - Frederick I of Prussia
By Georg Philipp Rugendas the Elder
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Georg Philipp I RUGENDAS (1666-1742)
Frederick I of Prussia
Red chalk, ink and brown wash on paper
45x42 cm
This drawing has been long considered representative of Charles VI. In r...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, 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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
George Edwards, Engravings of Parrots, published by Seligmann.
Located in Richmond, GB
PRICE IS FOR EACH FRAMED PRINT
"Sammlung Verschiedenr Auslandischer und Selener Vogel", Nuremberg 1770-1773. Edited by Johann Michael Seligmann (1749 -1776): engravings with origina...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Etching
Portrait Old Master, Joseph Vivien, Mme Silvestre, French Rococo, Pastel
By Joseph Vivien
Located in Greven, DE
The portrait shows Mme Silvestre.
Born in Paris, Silvestre was the daughter of Charles-Antoine Hérault and his wife Marie-Geneviève, who were her first teachers. In 1706 she married the painter Louis de Silvestre, moving with him in 1716 to Dresden. The couple's daughter Marie-Maximilienne became a pastellist. Silvestre died in Dresden, the year before her husband retired and returned to Paris. Her surviving pastels show the influence of Rosalba Carriera...
Category
Rococo 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Oil Pastel
George Edwards, Engravings of Birds, published by Seligmann, 1770.
Located in Richmond, GB
Price is per each framed print.
"Sammlung Verschiedenr Auslandischer und Selener Vogel", Nuremberg 1770-1773. Edited by Johann Michael Seligmann (1749 -1776): engravings with origin...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Engraving
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
18th century portrait drawing of the Rev. William Atkinson
Located in London, GB
Collections:
Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950);
Private collection, UK to 2019
Framed dimensions: 14.50 x 15.38 inches
This drawing is one of only two known portrait drawings by Romney (as opposed to preliminary studies for portraits) and is dated by Alex Kidson as being executed no later than 1769. It is likely that the present drawing was originally part of a sketchbook, now largely dismembered (Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal), which Kidson notes, contained some of Romney’s most beautiful early drawings. This drawing, and a second sheet formerly with Andrew Wyld, have been identifying as depicting the Rev. William Atkinson...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
George Edwards: 18th Century Engravings of Birds
Located in Richmond, GB
George Edwards: ""A History of Uncommon Birds"", 1749-1761.
A prominent English naturalist and ornithologist, George Edwards (1694 -1773) is best known for his work, ""A Natural His...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Engraving
Design for a theatre fresco with fancy plasterwork - early 18th century French S
Located in Middletown, NY
Pen and sepia ink on cream laid paper, 8 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches (222 x 136 mm). Scattered paper tape repairs on the verso in the area of the upper left corner, and along the right sheet...
Category
French School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Laid Paper
George Edwards, Engravings of Parrots, published by Seligmann.
Located in Richmond, GB
PRICE IS FOR EACH FRAMED PRINT
"Sammlung Verschiedenr Auslandischer und Selener Vogel", Nuremberg 1770-1773. Edited by Johann Michael Seligmann (1749 -1776): engravings with origina...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Etching
Old Master Drawing, Baroque, Jacob de Wit, Allegory of Victory, Putti, Ships
By Jacob De Wit
Located in Greven, DE
Two putti with symbols of war and victory (cannons, cannonballs, armour, anchor, lion's head, laurel branch/ olive branch, flag, staff with helmet) in pediment triangle.
Probably a d...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Crayon
$2,155 Sale Price
35% Off
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Carbon Pencil
George Edwards: 18th Century Engravings of Birds
Located in Richmond, GB
George Edwards: ""A History of Uncommon Birds"", 1749-1761.
A prominent English naturalist and ornithologist, George Edwards (1694 -1773) is best known for his work, ""A Natural His...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Engraving
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Handmade Paper
$1,705 Sale Price
20% Off
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 Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Mezzotint
Old Master Drawing, 17th Century, Italian Art, Peace, Allegory, Love, Dove
Located in Greven, DE
Oak Leaf Peace Wreath with Dove and Serpent
Around 1700
Black chalk on thin, brownish paper
39,8 x 52,7 cm
Inscribed "N" in the centre left
This drawing is probably by an Italian Ar...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Chalk
$379 Sale Price
20% Off
18th century pastel portrait of Lady Augusta Corbett and her son, Stuart
Located in London, GB
Collections:
Commissioned by Andrew Corbett, husband of the sitter;
The Venerable Stuart Corbett;
Sir Stuart Corbett;
By descent to 2002;
Sotheby’s, London 21 March 2002, lot.104;
Lowell Libson...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel, Gouache
Attributed to Francesco Casanova (1727-1803), A Mamluk fighting , watercolor
Located in Paris, FR
Attributed to Francesco Casanova (1727-1803),
A Mamluk fighting on his horse,
watercolor and ink on paper
35 x 26 cm
Framed 54 x 44 cm (vintage frame, the mount and the back have b...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Portrait of a Young Officer, Thomas Lawrence, Irish Volunteers
By Sir Thomas Lawrence
Located in London, GB
Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA
1769-1830
Portrait of a Young Officer
Pastel with touches of black chalk on paper
Signed and inscribed on an old label verso: "Be pleased to keep away / from the Damp & from dust / T Lawrence AE 13. / 1783."
Wash mount and gilt frame
Provenance
W.E. Spooner;
Anonymous sale, Phillips London, 17 April 2000 lot 196
Sothebys, Old Master & Early British Paintings, 14 April 2011 • London Lot 246
Old label verso describes how this was drawn in 1783 at the age of 14!
This is a portrait of an officer from the Irish Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers was a part-time military force raised by local initiative in Ireland in 1778. Their original purpose was to guard against invasion and to preserve law and order at a time when British soldiers were withdrawn from Ireland to fight abroad during the American Revolutionary War.
As a young boy Thomas Lawrence lived with his parents who ran a coaching inn near Bath. Clearly talented from this young age, he drew the passing travellers who stopped at the inn and this soldier may have been one such sitter. Lawrence was only 13 years old when he drew this work. To capitalise upon their son's talents, the family later moved to Bath and sent Lawrence to London in 1787 where he entered the Royal Academy schools at the earliest possible age. Works from such an early period of Lawrence's creativity are rarely to be found today.
This rare early portrait drawn in Bath shows the level of technical skill that Lawrence had reached at 14 years old. His use of colour and tone to depict flesh and all the subtle variations in the texture and pigmentation of his sitter’s face, powdered hair and clothes show how Lawrence conceived pastel as a form of painting and partly explains how he could have made the smooth transition to oil painting so soon afterwards.
When he arrived in Bath from Devizes in 1780, eleven-year-old Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) was promoted as a natural-born genius like his Renaissance predecessor Raphael. The local press announced the arrival of the boy wonder and his ‘Striking Sketches’, inviting the ‘Nobility and Gentry’ to sit for their portraits.
Thomas Lawrence was a prodigious portraitist from the age of just eight, when he began to draw his first portraits in pencil...
Category
Romantic 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Oil Pastel
Mughal School, 17th century Tiger Hunt near the Jahangir Maha, Agra
Located in Middletown, NY
An illuminated page from a book likely in reference to palace life during Emperor Jahangir's reign over the Mughal Empire.
c 1690. Gouache and ink with heightening in gold on light ...
Category
Rajput 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gold
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