18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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Period: 18th Century and Earlier
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
Paull Sandby, R.A. Ink & Wash on Paper of a Chair
By Paul Sandby
Located in Bristol, CT
Art Sz: 4 1/4"H x 3 1/2"W
Frame Sz: 8"H x 7"W
Paul Sandby RA (1731 – 7 November 1809) was an English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older b...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Pen
Francesco Furini Sanguine Drawing before 1642
Located in Florence, IT
Preparatory Drawing (sanguine on paper, 42 x 28 cm) by Francesco Furini for the making of the Saint Sebastian, ordered by the prince Lorenzo de' Medic...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Color Pencil
Study of a Fate at mid-body, a red chalk attributed to Giovanni da San Giovanni
Located in PARIS, FR
This spectacular red chalk drawing depicts an elderly woman, her eyes bulging, her hand stretched out towards the sky. This disturbing character, who seems close to dementia, and the elongation of her arm with its Mannerist overtones, plunge us into the Florentine artistic milieu of the first half of the 17th century. The proximity of this drawing to some characters in the fresco in the Pitti Palace representing The Muses, Poets and Philosophers chased from Parnassus, the last masterpiece of Giovanni da San Giovanni, leads us to propose an attribution to this artist and a dating of around 1635-1636.
1. Giovanni da San Giovanni, the painter of contradiction
We take here the title of the monography dedicated to the artist by Anna Banti in 1977, which remains the reference book for this artist. The son of a notary, Giovanni Mannozzi, known as Giovanni da San Giovanni, abandoned his studies to go to Florence at the age of sixteen, where he entered the studio of Matteo Rosselli (1578 - 1650) around 1609 and enrolled in the Academy of Drawing Arts in 1612. Around 1615 he produced his first known works, mainly frescoes for the city's tabernacles. He became famous in Florence for his originality, combining an obsessive application to the study of drawing and the reading of poetry and history with a disheveled appearance. Between 1619 and 1620 he decorated the facade of the Antella Palace in Piazza Santa Croce, a decoration that still partly survives today.
The death of Cosimo II in 1621 put an end to the Florentine building activity and Giovanni da San Giovanni left for Rome to find other sponsors with the painter Francesco Furini...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
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
Attrib. Francis Nicholson (1753-1844) - Watercolour, Castle and Cattle
Located in Corsham, GB
Figures and cattle rest in the foreground beneath the commanding presence of the castle in this atmospheric eighteenth, possibly nineteenth-century watercolour. In the distance, ligh...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
"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
Architectural Stucco Design, Pen and Ink Drawing, Signed, 18th Century Italian
Located in London, GB
Pen and brown ink and brown and grey washes on paper
Signed top middle
Image size: 10 x 3 3/4 inches (25.5 x 8 cm)
The sketch is a useful example of Bigari's work in the late-Baroqu...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pen
Portrait of a Lady in a White Dress - 18th Century Watercolour
By John Downman
Located in London, GB
John Downman
1750-1824
Portrait of a Lady in a White Dress
Pencil, stump and watercolour, heightened with white chalk, signed and dated 1784
Imag...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Paper
Circle of Angelika Kauffmann, Venus and Amor, Arrow and Spindle, Oval Drawing
Located in Greven, DE
Fine drawing in pencil, oval format. Circle of Angelika Kauffmann.
The subject is not clear. It is Amor with his arrows and perhaps Venus with a sp...
Category
Romantic 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Crayon, Handmade Paper
$1,146 Sale Price
20% Off
French 18th Century Pastel Portrait of a Young Lady in Period Costume.
Located in Cotignac, FR
Late 18th Century French pastel portrait on paper of a young lady in period dress in a 'feigned oval'. In gilt wood frame presented under glass.
Very much of its period and similar ...
Category
Realist 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Crayon, Pastel
$1,337 Sale Price
37% Off
Italian School 18th Century Drawing - Red Chalk on Paper
Located in Stockholm, SE
An Italian red chalk drawing depiction on paper, probably 17th or 18th century, illustrating the dramatic scene of Polyphemus hurling a boulder at Acis and Galatea. Attributed to an...
Category
Italian School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Chalk
Animal painting of a 'Tamanuâguacû (Ant-eater)' late 17th/18th century, Brazil
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Follower of Zacharias Wagener (1614-1688)
Tamanuâguasû (Giant Anteater)
On Italian 17th or 18th-century paper, H. 28 x W. 43.5 cm
The present painting is a copy after Wagener’s painting of the anteater, Tamanduá-bandeira, which is illustrated in his “Thier Buch”, with 109 drawings of Brazilian fish, birds and mammals, published in Amsterdam c. 1641, in German.
Zacharias Wagener, or Wagenaer in Dutch, (Dresden 1614 – Amsterdam 1668) was a real adventurer who became Opperhoofd on Deshima and Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in the service of the VOC. During the Thirty-Year War in Germany Wagener tried his luck in Amsterdam where he worked for the map-maker Willem Blaeu. In 1634 he joined the WIC and left for Dutch Brazil where he worked as writer and painter, together with Frans Post...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, India Ink, Gouache
The Callings of Saints Peter and Andrew
Located in London, GB
The Callings of Saints Peter and Andrew
Robert Edge Pine
1730-1788
Chalk on paper
Image size: 15 1/2 x 17 inches (39.5 x 43 cm)
Original frame
Here in Pine’s picture displays an ac...
Category
English School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Chalk
William Payne (1760-1830) - 1798 Watercolour, Village By The River
Located in Corsham, GB
Signed to the lower left. Presented in a gilt frame with foliate detailing. On paper.
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
$542 Sale Price
20% Off
17th C Dutch Old Master Ink & Wash Painting Biblical Figures Rembrandt Pupil
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Figure being Comforted (Job?)
circle of Willem Drost (Dutch 1633-1659) *See notes below
ink and wash drawing on paper (Arms of Amsterdam watermarked)
Dutc...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
$3,813 Sale Price
30% Off
Disegno figurativo fiammingo ad acquerello del XVIII secolo, scena di genere
Located in Florence, IT
Sullo sfondo di un paesaggio dai tratti centro-settentrionali europei-in cui si riconoscono una cappella e il profilo di una città dagli alti pinnacoli-si svolge una scena di svago, ...
Category
Other Art Style 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
View of Castle of Vianen, Batestein, Dutch Golden Age, Schouman, Old Master Art
By Aert Schouman
Located in Greven, DE
Though he is most celebrated today for his extraordinary work as an artist of ornithological and zoological subject matters, Schouman was also a prolific documenter of landscape in his native Holland. The present drawing, which depicts a view of the Castel of Vianen, fits securely into a corpus of drawings Schouman produced on the same scale and in the same distinctive combination of media, examples of which are today housed in the collection of the Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen, Middelburg.
Castle Batestein (also called Batenstein ) is a castle disappeared from the Netherlands . It was built on the banks of the Lek in the small town of Vianen, then in the province of South Holland (now in the province of Utrecht ).
The castle was burned down in 1696 and then demolished. Remains only the Hofpoort (or castle gate...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Handmade Paper, Pen
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
$1,719 Sale Price
20% Off
Study of horse and ox bones
Located in Middletown, NY
Graphite, ink wash and watercolor on handmade laid paper with a large, indistinguishable ovoid watermark with a bunch of grapes, 8 7/16 x 12 5/8 inches (225 x 320 mm), signed in brown ink in the lower left. With the Henry Scipio Reitlinger oval stamp in brown ink on the verso (Lugt 2274a).
The condition of the image and paper is consistent with age, there is minor toning on the recto and some attenuation of the green pigment. The drawing is laid down to an 18th century laid paper support and has a small pencil notation in the lower right corner (modern), and scattered notations in pencil on the verso of the support (also modern, perhaps auction/accession notes). On the paper support is an ink drawing in red and black of what appears to be the floor plan for the wing of a large building. The drawing is top-up, adhered facing the verso of the drawing. The architectural drawing on the support is visible through to the recto of the composition when the sheets are viewed through raking light. There is a small area of stipple point spotting in brown ink on the verso of the support. Examination under black light shows no indication of repairs or additions, expert or otherwise.
Provenance:
Henry Scipio Reitlinger was born in either 1882 or 1885, attended Kings College...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper, Graphite
Study of a Putto with Attributes of Painting
Located in New York, NY
Circle of François Boucher (1703–1770)
Study of a Putto with Attributes of Painting
Chalk on paper
An elegant Rococo drawing depicting a winged putto with a painter’s palette and br...
Category
Rococo 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Animal Skin, Chalk, Paper
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
Orpheus and the Animals, A Study after an Ancient Bas-Relief
Located in New York, NY
Inscribed “55” and “218” in the lower right
Watermark: Heawood 1351
Laid down on historic Cassiano Del Pozzo mount
(Mount Type A, 531 x 402 mm)
Provenance:
Commissioned by Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1637) for his Museo Cartaceo (Paper Museum) and kept in the library of his palazzo, via dei Chiavari, Rome
Transferred with the entire dal Pozzo collection by fidecommesso to his younger brother, Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo (1606–1689); by descent to his second son:
Gabriele dal Pozzo (d. 1695); by descent to his wife:
Anna Teresa Benzoni and after her remarriage in 1697, the Marchesa Lancellotti de’ Ginnetti (d. 1736); by descent to their son:
Cosimo Antonio dal Pozzo (d. 1740); by whom sold with the Dal Pozzo library in 1703 to:
Pope Clement XI for the Vatican Library; by whom transferred as part of the Museo Cartaceo in January 1714 to his nephew:
Cardinal Alessandro Albani (1692–1779), Palazzo ‘alle Quattro Fontane’ in Rome; by whom sold in 1762 to:
James Adam, agent for the British Royal Librarian Richard Dalton (1715–1791)
King George III of England, Buckingham House
Among the sheets of the ‘Museo Cartaceo’ appropriated by Richard Dalton during a reorganization of the drawings, circa 1786-1788; his estate sale, Greenwood’s, London, 11-19 May 1791; where acquired by:
John MacGowan...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pen
Sketch of Three Figures
Located in London, GB
Benjamin Robert Haydon
1786 - 1846
Sketch of Three Figures
Pen and ink on paper,
Image size: 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches (25 x 20 cm)
Acid Free mount, original frame
Provenance
Private Col...
Category
English School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pen
Framed 18th Century Pen and Ink Drawings - Designs for Capital & Base Supports
Located in Corsham, GB
Framed 18th-century pen and ink drawings of elaborate capital and base supports, inspired by Ancient Greek architecture and design. Well presented in a fluted gilt-effect frame. Unsi...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pen
The Assumption of Mary Magdalene, Italian School, 16th Century
Located in Middletown, NY
Brownish ink and grayish ink wash with white heightening on handmade cream laid paper, 10 5/8 x 8 1/4 inches (267 x 208 mm)(matrix). Scattered minor losses to top sheet edge (outside...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper
Attrib. Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) - Watercolour, The Infant Bacchus with Goats
Located in Corsham, GB
A delicate 18th century sepia watercolour depicting The Infant Bacchus with Goats. Beautifully presented in a period gilt frame with sgraffito decoration. Much of the artist's graphi...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
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 design for a painting or architecture
Pen-and-ink drawing in black on brownish paper, black wash
Plain gold moulding with UV glass
Allegory of Victory, 18th Century, Old Master Drawing, By De Wit, Figurative
Jacob de Wit...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Crayon
$2,173 Sale Price
35% Off
Attrib. Johann Tischbein (1751-1829)- 18th Century Pastel, Maria Luisa of Parma
Located in Corsham, GB
A romantic late 18th-century pastel portrait, attributed to the German portraitist Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829). Exquisitely presented in its original giltwood frame...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel
Soldier begging for Mercy a preparatory study by Jean-Marc Nattier (1685 - 1766)
Located in PARIS, FR
This rare drawing by Nattier is part of a set of preparatory studies executed in 1717 for one of the painter's first commissions, the painting commissioned by Tsar Peter I of Russia ...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
A dazzling Venetian Regatta Boat Study attributed to Alessandra Mauro
Located in PARIS, FR
This stunning Baroque study depicts a regatta boat, a type of vessel developed in eighteenth-century Venice for the regattas organized by the Serenissima during visits by royalty and princes. We propose to link this drawing to the work of Alessandro Mauro, an artist who specialized in this type of composition, as illustrated by a drawing from him at the Metropolitan Museum.
1. Description of the boat
The greatest decorative fantasy reigns in this preparatory study, which blends mythological and exotic elements with references to ancient Egypt. Our drawing is probably an initial thought, destined to be refined and clarified later in pen and ink (as evidenced by the ink stain in the lower right). A quadriga of seahorses guided by Neptune stands at the stern of the boat, shown well above the waterline (perhaps to outline its empty volume). One of the seahorses is ridden by a newt, while Amphitrite lies at the feet of the sea god.
The center of the boat is occupied by a vast baldachin resting on four atlantes and surmounted by a figure riding an animal (a dragon?). Three figures sit beneath the canopy, one of them on a griffin-shaped seat. This allusion to Egyptian antiquity echoes the winged sun (sometimes a symbol of the god Horus, as in the temple of Edfu in Egypt) that adorns the sides of the promontory on which this baldachin rests.
Another flag-bearer figure crouches at the stern of the boat on a raised seat, on the reverse of which is a crowned mermaid whose arm, extended backwards, rests on a mascaron decorated with a radiant face (Helios?) and whose torso surmounts an elephant's head. The heads of the rowers and their oars are sketched all along the boat, whose sides are embellished with elongated naiads.
2. The Venetian regatta boats
An exhibition held in 2013 at the Ca' Rezzonico (the Venetian eighteenth-century museum) paid tribute to these regatta boats through studies and prints depicting them. The regattas organized by the Serenissima in honor of visiting princes and sovereigns were among the most spectacular ceremonies in Venice. Some important artists of the 18th century contributed to the creation of these extravagant boats which were given exotic names such as bissona, malgarota or peota.
The specialists in this field were Andrea Urbani and the brothers Alessandro and Romualdo Mauro. They were born into a family of theater decorators in Piedmont, but little is known about their detailed biography. Alessandro was the architect of the Dresden opera house and of the St. Samuel Theater in Venice (in collaboration with his brother Romualdo), but also worked as stagehand and set designer in Vienna, Rome and Turin. A drawing produced around 1737 from the Metropolitan Museum (7th photo in the gallery) bears witness to his activity as a regatta boat designer.
This drawing is a much more elaborate version than the one presented here, having been entirely reworked in brown ink. However, a figure at the bow of the boat, executed solely in black chalk, still bears witness to a technique similar to that of our drawing.
It is difficult to know whether the boat depicted in our drawing was a project for an actual boat or whether it remained in the planning stage, but the front of our boat (Neptune and the quadriga of seahorses ridden by a newt) bears several similarities to that of a parade boat depicted in the print published by Michele Marieschi entitled Regatta on the Grand Canal, between the Foscari and Balbi Palaces (last photo in the gallery). This print is dated 1741, which could confirm that our work dates from around 1740.
The area between Neptune and the quadriga that precedes him on this strange paddle-boat appears to be partially submerged, confirming that the waterline of our boat was probably intended to be much lower than the one shown in our drawing.
The Correr Museum’s collection holds one of the most important collection of engravings and drawings devoted to these specifically Venetian Baroque productions. These boats were intended to last the duration of a festival. Today, they are only documented by preparatory drawings or prints that testify to the sumptuousness of their decoration. This taste for regatta boats lasted throughout the Venetian eighteenth century, and the conception of regatta boats also attracted great masters such as Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi or Giambattista Piranesi...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Drawing of a captive woman
By Henry Fuseli
Located in London, GB
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...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Young Man with a Sword, a Fist on his Hip, a drawing by Cornelis Saftleven
Located in PARIS, FR
Black chalk and white highlights on paper (originally washed in blue)
Monogrammed and dated 1630 on the right
This drawing, executed in black chalk and enhanced with white brushwor...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Chalk
Old Master Figure Sketch Pencil on Vellum
Located in Astoria, NY
Old Master, Figure Sketch, Pencil on Vellum, 18th century, inscribed "G.26" lower right, wood frame. Image: 5.5" H x 3.5" W; frame: 13.75" H x 11" W x 1.25" D. Provenance: From a New...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Vellum, Pencil
Sibyl or bust-length woman, seen in profile to the left, wearing a turban
By Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino)
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Follower of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino (Cento 1591 – 1666 Bologna)
Sibyl or bust-length woman, seen in profile to the left, wearing a turban
Red chalk on paper,...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Old Master Drawing, Roccoco, 18th Century, German Artist, Animal Drawing
By Johann Martin Metz
Located in Greven, DE
Black chalk, partly washed, on paper, sheet 27.5 x 19.7 cm
Plain gold moulding, 44.8 x 36 cm
The Rhenish still life painter Johann Martin Metz was ...
Category
Rococo 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Crayon
$764 Sale Price
20% Off
Italian Old Master Ink & Wash Drawing St. Anne & The Virgin Mary with Cherubs
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Pietro Fancelli (Italian 1764 - 1850)
bio details attached to the frame
'St. Anne & The Virgin'
ink with watercolor wash on paper, framed
framed: 22 x 16 inches
image: 11 x 6.5 inche...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
$1,337 Sale Price
30% Off
Study of a bearded man in profile to the right
By Leonardo da Vinci
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Circle of Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci, 1452 – 1519, Clos-Lucé)
First half of the 16th century
Study of a Bearded Man in Profile, Facing Right
Red chalk on paper
8 × 6 cm
Unsigned
Pr...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Laid Paper
Illustration - Ink and Watercolor on Paper - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Illustration is a drawing in watercolor on paper realized by an anonymous artist of the 18 century.
With a drawing on the rear.
The State of preservation is good, except for diffu...
Category
Contemporary 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Ink
Portrait of a Man Wearing a Turban, 18th Century Pastel Drawing
By Thomas Frye
Located in London, GB
Pastel on paper
Image size: 13 x 17 1/2 inches (33 x 44.5 cm)
Mounted and framed
This original pastel drawing by Thomas Frye is a half-length portrait of a man dressed in a turban. This drawing is the original sketch for one of the heads depicted in Frye's collection 'Twelve Mezzotint Prints' of 1760 and it can be assumed that this pastel work was created earlier of this same year.
Two versions of the print, created from this original work, are currently held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Frye's evocative figures, although presumably based on living models, exceed the conventions of portraiture, and also function as character studies. The man shown here - dressed in the fashionable 'Turkish' manner - turns with parted lips as if poised to speak, while raising the elegant fingers in one hand in a rhetorical gesture. His long eyelashes and smoothly rendered wrinkles and dimples are hallmarks of Frye's refined style.
The Artist
Thomas Frye (c. 1710 – 3 April 1762) was an Anglo-Irish artist, best known for his portraits in oil and pastel, including some miniatures and his early mezzotint engravings. He was also the patentee of the Bow porcelain factory, London, and claimed in his epitaph to be "the inventor and first manufacturer of porcelain in England," though his rivals at the Chelsea porcelain factory seem to have preceded him in bringing wares to market. The Bow porcelain works did not long survive Frye's death; their final auctions took place in May 1764.
Frye was born at Edenderry, County Offaly, Ireland, in 1710; in his youth he went to London to practice as an artist. His earliest works are a pair of pastel portraits of boys...
Category
English School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Oil Pastel
Head of a Cheerful Man Wearing a Cap
Located in New York, NY
Watermark: the arms of Amsterdam
Provenance:
Christie’s, Amsterdam, 1 December 1986, lot 46; where acquired by:
Private Collection, New York
Literature:
Roger Adolf d’Hulst, “Jordaens Drawings: Supplement II,” Master Drawings, vol. 28, no. 2 (1990), pp. 153-156, no. A237a, fig. 17.
Matías Díaz Padrón, Jacob Jordaens...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Chalk
Woman in Fantasy Costume (pair)
Located in New York, NY
The pair consists of the present work and an engraving after it by the hand of Giles DeMarteau (Liège 1722 – 1776 Paris) titled Woman in Fantasy Costume, after Jean Baptiste Le Prince, and measuring, 10 ⅜ x 8 ⅝ inches (26.5 x 22 cm).
DeMarteau's engraving is inscribed at the bottom:
Le Prince inv. del. / Demarteau sc. / A Paris ches Demarteau Graveur du Roi, rue de la Pelterie à la Cloche...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Chalk, Engraving
"Three Herons" - Hand Watercolor Engraving
Located in Soquel, CA
"Three Herons" - Hand Watercolor Engraving
"Three Herons" from a collection of the Most Rare Birds Drawn and Engraved From Life, A Natural and Rational History of the Different Bird...
Category
French School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Engraving
$627 Sale Price
35% Off
Still life with ornamental urn, grapes and flora - French School 17 Cent.
Located in Middletown, NY
Pencil on cream laid paper, 10 x 8 3/4 inches (254 x 222 mm). Uniform age tone, scattered surface soiling, and handling wear. One pea-sized area of skinning in the top-center sheet ...
Category
French School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Laid Paper, Pencil
"Collection Of The Most Rare Birds" - Hand Watercolor Engraving
Located in Soquel, CA
"Collection Of The Most Rare Birds" - Hand Colored Engraving
Collection of the Most Rare Birds Drawn and Engraved From Life, A Natural and Rational Histor...
Category
French School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Engraving, Watercolor, Paper
French School 18th Century, L'étonnement, form of expression, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
French School 18th Century,
L'étonnement, Astonishment as a form of expression,
Titled on the lower right "L'étonnement N°9"
Black chalk on paper
43 x 29 cm
In good condition, a sta...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
19th Century Watercolor by Samuel Phillips Jackson, RWS
By Samuel Phillips Jackson
Located in New York, NY
Samuel Phillips Jackson R.W.S. (British, 1830-1904)
Untitled Landscape, 18th century
Watercolor on Paper
Sight size: 8 1/4 x 12 3/4 in.
Framed: 17 1/2 x 22 in.
Signed lower left: S.P. Jackson R.W.S.
Samuel Phillips Jackson was born in the city of Bristol in September 1830, the son of the equally eminent watercolourist Samuel Jackson...
Category
English School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
The Introduction, French School, 18th century
Located in Middletown, NY
In this charming scene a maid appears bashful as she is introduced by her mother to the shepherd’s son.
Ink and wash on hand made, cool-toned cream laid paper, 6 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches...
Category
French School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper
Portrait of Raffaello / Italian School
Located in Middletown, NY
Graphite and ink on handmade, watermarked C & I Honig laid paper, 8 15/16 x 6 3/4 inches (226 x 170 mm). Signed illegibly in ink, lower margin. Scattered light creasing and surface...
Category
Italian School 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Handmade Paper, Ink, Graphite
MALLARD DUCKS
Located in Portland, ME
Goshun, Matsumura (Japanese, 1752-1811). SCROLL PAINTING - PAIR OF MALLARD DUCKS. Painted in colored inks on silk. Signed in Japanese, lower right. Not dated but likely late 18th to ...
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
LE PAON Watercolor lavis ink Military scene castle bridge French 18th
Located in PARIS, FR
Jean-Baptiste LE PAON
Paris, 1738 – Paris, 1785
Military scene near a castle
Wash and ink on paper
25 x 31 cm (38 x 44 cm with frame)
Signed and dated lower right: “Le Paon / 1785”
C...
Category
Baroque 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
The Tiber, near Rome / Italian School 18th Century
Located in Middletown, NY
Pen and sepia ink wash on cream laid paper, 4 1/8 x 6 3/16 inches (103 x 152 mm). In good condition with scattered areas of light brown discoloration, and un...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Laid Paper, Pencil
Verse 1 through Verse 60
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Verse 1 through Verse 60
From: Leyli o Majnun by Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209CE)
This folio comprises the first 60 verses of the epic Persian poem
“The masnavi of Leyli va Majnun (4,60...
Category
Other Art Style 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pigment
Pair of 18th Century watercolour drawings by Old Master Carle Vernet
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Carle Vernet (French, 1758 – 1836)
‘La Marchande de Coco’; and ‘La Tour de Babbe d’un Charbonnier’
Ink, watercolour on paper
Both signed C Vernet and Carle Vernet (lower left and lower right respectively)
12.1/4 x 9 in. (31 x 22.8 cm.) A pair
Vernet was born in Bordeaux. At the age of five, he showed an extraordinary passion for drawing horses, but went through the regular academical course as a pupil of his father and of Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié. Strangely, after winning the grand prix (1782), he seemed to lose interest in the profession, and his father had to recall him back from Rome to France to prevent him from entering a monastery.
In his Triumph of Aemilius Paulus, he broke with tradition and drew the horse with the forms he had learnt from nature in stables and riding-schools. His hunting-pieces, races, landscapes, and work as a lithographer were also very popular.
Carle's sister was executed by the guillotine during the Revolution. After this, he gave up art.
When he again began to produce under the French Directory (1795–1799), his style had changed radically. He started drawing in minute detail battles and campaigns to glorify Napoleon. His drawings of Napoleon...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Girl - Ink and Watercolor by J. P. Verdussen - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Girl is a china ink drawing realized b Jan Peter Verdussen in the mid-18th Century.
Good condition except for some missing parts in the lower left and right edges.
Category
18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Portrait of a Young Man, Figurative, Pencil on Paper by Atul Bose "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Atul Bose - Portrait of a Young Man
Pencil on Paper
8 x 6 inches, 1935
(Unframed & Delivered)
In this delicate pencil portrait, Atul renders the profile of a young man with remarkab...
Category
Modern 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pen, Pencil
Bust-length study of a fashionable lady, c. 1760s
Located in Maidenhead, GB
Robert Healy (1743-1771) (attrib.)
Bust-length study of a fashionable lady, c. 1760s
Black chalk on prepared laid blue paper, heightened with white
15.6 ...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Venice Landscape - Ink and Watercolor - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Venice Landscape is an original, splendid drawing in pen and watercolor realized by an Anonymous Venetian School, XVIII century. The state of preserva...
Category
Modern 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
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
17th Century French sanguine drawing of maiden's harvesting flowers
By (Circle of) Nicolas Poussin
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Circle of Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594-1665)
Maiden’s harvesting flowers
Sanguine on paper
8. ¾ in. (22 cm.) tondo
Category
Old Masters 18th Century and Earlier Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper
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