Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
OLD MASTERS
Encompassing centuries of change in Europe between 1300 and 1800, from booms of prosperity to bloody revolutions, Old Masters describes a wide range of artists. The informal term was derived from the title of an artist who trained in a guild long enough to become a master, such as Leonardo da Vinci, who studied in a Florence painters’ guild. However, Old Masters paintings, prints and other art is now used to refer to work made by any artist with a high level of skill in painting, drawing, sculpture or printmaking who worked during this era.
The 15th century’s expansive trade and commerce spread culture across borders. A vibrant period of art emerged, bolstered by studies of anatomy and nature that influenced a new visual realism. From Raphael and Michelangelo in the Renaissance to Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer in the Dutch Golden Age, artists expressed emotion, naturalism, color and light in new ways. El Greco and Paolo Veronese were leaders in the dramatic style of Mannerism, while Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens demonstrated the movement and meticulous detail of Baroque art.
Historically, most attention was concentrated on male artists, but recent research and exhibitions have elevated the impactful work of women such as Rachel Ruysch and Artemisia Gentileschi. In late-18th-century France, female artists like Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun were prominent names. Nevertheless, access to the academies and guilds was highly restricted for women, and even those able to establish practices were expected to adhere to portraits and still lifes rather than the grand history paintings being created by men.
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Style: Old Masters
French Neo classical school, Allegory of Time, original drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Neo classical school, France, end of the 18th Century
Allegory of Time,
Pen and black ink on paper, gray ink wash
30.5 x 19 cm
irregularly shaped
In g...
Category
1790s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
India Ink
La Bataille - The Battle - Drawing by J. P. Verdussen - 1740s
Located in Roma, IT
China ink and watercolor on paper.
Conditions: Two cuts on the centre of the paper. Three holes on centre-right, botton-left and top-left of the paper.
Worn on the top left of the ...
Category
1740s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
The Adoration -Painting by Giuseppe Assereto - 1630
Located in Roma, IT
The Adoration is an original modern artwork realized by Giuseppe Assereto (died in Genoa in 1650) in the first half of the 17th Century.
Original Oil Painting on Canvas.
A 19th Century style gilded wood frame is included.
The Autograph of the work was confirmed by Camillo Manzitti.
Very good conditions. The frame is in excellent conditions too.
Reference:
C. Marcenaro, Pittori genovesi a Genova nel '600 e nel '700, Genova 1969, pp. 134 ; 135, n. 55.
Z. Wazbinski, Un Quadro Caravaggesco Di Gioacchino Assereto, in Prospettiva, n. 26, 1981, pp. 60 ; 63.
F. R. Pesenti, La Pittura in Liguria. Artisti del primo Seicento, Genova 1986, p. 397, nota 23.
A. Gesino, Tracce di Matthias Stom nel collezionismo tra la Sicilia e Genova, in Caravaggio e i genovesi, catalogo della Mostra a cura di A. Orlando, Genova 2019, pp. 182 ; 195.
The Adoration is an excellent example of the XVII Century Italian Painting. The style of the work denotes the suggestive influence of Assereto father's mature production, when influenced by Mathias Stom (Amersfoort, about 1600 - Sicily, after 1650) expresses dark sensibilities in a southern Italian style. In his works, however, there is an accentuated naturalism and interesting similarities with the production of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Gioacchino Assereto died in 1650, while, according to Soprani, he was intent on painting a Last Supper for the oratory...
Category
1630s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Oil
Academy Study of a Seated Male Figure Seen from the Back
By Charles Joseph Natoire
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Attributed to Charles-Joseph NATOIRE (Nîmes 1700 – 1777 Gandolfo)
Academy Study of a Seated Male Figure Seen from the Back
(Youthful study executed around the 1720s–1730s, likely du...
Category
1720s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Jan Cornelis Sylvius, Preacher by Rembrandt Van Rijn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Rembrandt van Rijn
1606–1669 Dutch
Jan Cornelis Sylvius, Preacher
New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish (Rembrandt) 235, state 2/2
Bartsch 280
Printed by Rembrandt
Signed and dated "Rem...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Etching
Member of the Military Band - Drawing - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Member of the military band is a beautiful pencil drawing on cream-colored paper, realized during the XIX century by an Italian Master.
Hand-signed on the right side of the artwork....
Category
19th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
View of a Mansion in the South of France, a drawing by Claude-Joseph Vernet
By Claude-Joseph Vernet
Located in PARIS, FR
We would like to thank Madame Beck-Saiello for confirming the autograph nature of this drawing after an in-person examination.
It was probably during an excursion in the countryside near Avignon that Claude-Joseph Vernet executed this drawing, enhanced with pen and brown ink, depicting a mansion on a hilltop overlooking a small village with geometric shapes.
1. Joseph Vernet, a painter influenced by Italy
Claude-Joseph Vernet was born in Avignon in 1714, the son of Antoine Vernet (1689-1753), an artisan painter of architectural decorations, coach panels, and the like. He moved to the studio of Philippe Sauvan (1697-1792), a leading history painter in Avignon, and then worked with Jacques Viali (active 1681-1745), a decorative, landscape, and marine painter in Aix-en-Provence. Vernet's first recorded paintings were decorative overdoors executed in 1731 in the Aix townhouse of the marquise de Simiane. In 1734, Joseph de Seytres, marquis de Caumont, a leading amateur in Avignon, sponsored Vernet to make a study trip to Italy to complete his artistic education and to draw antiquities for his patron.
As Avignon was a papal territory in Vernet's day, he also had a number of useful introductions among influential churchmen when he arrived in Rome. Vernet was soon at home in the French community there, and he was encouraged by Nicolas Vleughels (1668-1737), director of the Académie de France in Rome, even though the young painter had no official affiliation with the royal institution. He likely entered the studio of the French marine painter Adrien Manglard...
Category
1730s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Laid Paper, Pen, Carbon Pencil
Fine 18th Century Italian Old Master Chalk Drawing Male Nude with Wooden Club
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Study of a Male Nude with Wooden Club
by Giovanni Battista Tonna (Italian, 1760-1830)
charcoal pencil on artist paper, mounted in a card frame
mounted frame: 22 x 16.5 inches
artist ...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Charcoal
Study of Feet and a Figure Sketch
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
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.)
Unsigned
Minor losses, folds, an...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Man on Horseback Abducting a Woman
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Jean-Robert ANGO (Active 1759 – 1773)
Man on Horseback Abducting a Woman
Red chalk and white chalk
26.1 x 25.9 cm
Provenance
Libert-Castor sale, November 19, 1993 (lot no. 23, ill...
Category
1760s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
The Torture of Saint Concordia
By Domenico Piola the Elder
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Circle of Domenico Piola (Genoa 1627 – 1703)
The Torture of Saint Concordia
Black chalk, brown ink and brown wash on two sheets of paper,
40.5 x 42 cm
Unsigned
Provenance:
Estate...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
H F Gravelot (1699-1773) Two Allegories, Faith and Vigilance, Pen and Ink
By Hubert-François Gravelot
Located in Paris, FR
Hubert-François Gravelot (1699-1773)
Two Allegories : Vigilance and Faith
Pen, black Ink, and black wash on paper
7.9 x 4.8 each one
Framed 22 x 26 cm
Old framing that needs to be...
Category
1760s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
18th Century School, Courtyard of a palazzo, Architectural Capriccio, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
18th Century french School,
Courtyard of a ruined palazzo, An Architectural Capriccio,
Pen and black ink and black ink wash on paper
17 x 12 cm
In good condition
Framed : 32 x 26 c...
Category
1780s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
16th Century by Andrea Boscoli The payment of the duty Pen and ink on paper
Located in Milano, Lombardia
Andrea Boscoli (Florence, Italy, 1564 – Rome, Italy, 1608)
Title: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘵𝘺, 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘰 𝘥𝘢 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘰
Medium: Pen and brow...
Category
16th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Paper, Cardboard, Pen
Sleeping Boy - Drawing by Giovanni Fontana - 16th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Sleeping Boy is an original modern artwork realized in the 16th century by Giovanni Fontana.
Ivory colored sheet attached on an ivory colored cardboard (...
Category
16th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pencil
$3,615 Sale Price
20% Off
Draped Woman Holding A Branch
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
CARLO URBINO
(Crema 1525 - after 1585)
Draped Woman Holding a Branch
Pencil and brown ink on laid paper
13.6 x 7.7 cm
Unsigned
16th century
Mounted on 20th-century paper
Handwrit...
Category
16th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Rome, The Countryside- China Ink Drawing by Jan Pieter Verdussen - 1742
Located in Roma, IT
Rome is a beautiful artwork realized by Jan Peter Verdussen in 1742.
In good condition except for some pencil marks and traces of sealing wax on the back and some diffused foxings.
...
Category
Mid-17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink
18th Century Roman School , A Palazzo with antiques, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
18th Century Roman School
A Palazzo with antiques
Brown ink and pen, brown ink wash on paper
12.5 x 20 cm
Framed : 28,5 x 35.5
This nice drawing represents a genre scene, with a nobleman, priests, a mother and her children...
Category
Early 18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Landscape - Watercolor and Pencil by Jan Peter Verdussen - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape is a beautiful dranwing in watercolor and pencil on ivory-colored paper realized by Jan Peter Verdussen.
In good condition; only a sma...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
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
1610s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Laid Paper, Pen
Baptism of Christ - Ink Drawing by Anonymous XIX Century
Located in Roma, IT
Baptism of Christ is a beautiful original drawing (pen and ink on paper) by an anonymous of the Neoclassical school of the beginning of the 19th century.
A ...
Category
19th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Madonna della Scodella
Located in Roma, IT
Madonna della Scodella is an original drawing (black pencil, pen and ink on laid paper) by an exponent of the Italian school of the eighteenth century.
In excellent conditions: almo...
Category
19th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Turin Countryside - Original Ink and Watercolor by Jan Pieter Verdussen - 1744
Located in Roma, IT
China ink and Watercolour. With handwritten notes, indicating the place and date of the artwork in lower margin: "Fait proche de Turin, ce 13 Juin 1744". Numbered on the lower right ...
Category
1740s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Landscape - Pencil and Watercolor by Jan Pieter Verdussen - 1750
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape is a beautiful drawing in watercolor and pencil on ivory-colored paper realized by Jan Peter Verdussen.
In good condition; only a smallspots at the edges of the drawing an...
Category
1750s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Grimace - China Ink and Watercolor Drawing - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Grimace is a beautiful brown and black China ink drawing and watercolor on wire rod paper, made by an anonymous artist of the late 18th century.
A precious old master's original dra...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
The Assumption of the Virgin
Located in New York, NY
Provenance:
Unidentified collector’s mark “D.G.R,” lower right (Lugt 757b)
Wilhelm Suida (1877–1959), New York; by descent to:
Robert L. and Bertina Suida Manning, New York, until 1996
Private Collection, USA
This impressive drawing of the Assumption of the Virgin is the work of the Genoese artist Giovanni Battista Paggi. The son of a nobleman, Paggi received a humanist education and was a self-taught artist. According to Paggi’s first biographer, Raffaele Soprani, it was only after encountering Luca...
Category
16th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pen
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
1740s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
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
1780s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
La Porcellana (A Market Scene of Porcelain Vendors)
Located in Greenwich, CT
An old master drawing that can live in a very contemporary environment! Remarkable use of line and expression - should be enjoyed in an important spot - can grace a kitchen or livin...
Category
16th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper, Graphite
Roman Charity (Cimon and Pero)
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Michel CORNEILLE the Younger (Paris, 1642 – 1708)
Roman Charity (Cimon and Pero)
Black chalk with white highlights on beige paper
Height: 28 cm – Width: 20 cm
Unsigned
France, cir...
Category
Late 17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Charcoal, Chalk
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
18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Annunciation Scene
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Pierre-Mathieu Ogier (active between 1676 and 1709)
Annunciation Scene
Engraved copper plate, dated 1691
17.5 x 11.2 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, France
This engraved copper...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Copper
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
1710s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777) Putti playing around a sculpture, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777)
Putti playing around a sculpture, a mythological scene
Pen and brown ink on paper
15.4 x 31 cm
In good condition
The ancient mount has has a smal...
Category
1770s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
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
18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel, Gouache
Jean-Henri Cless (1774-1812) Portrait of a young woman, signed drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Jean-Henri Cless (1774-1812)
Portrait of a young woman in a landscape
signed "Cless fec" for fecit on the lower left
Brown ink and brown ink wash on paper
Size of the sheet : 31.5 x 22 cm
Size of the motive : 24.5 x 17 cm
very simply framed under glass without actual frame 32 x 22.5 cm
This pre...
Category
Early 1800s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Pencil
By the Fireside
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Edouard Bernard DEBAT-PONSAN
(Toulouse 1847 – 1913 Paris)
By the Fireside
Ink, wash, and gouache on paper
15 3/8 x 15 3/4 in
39 x 40 cm
Monogrammed lower right “DP”
Provenance
Private collection, France
This work is a preparatory study related to the artist’s painting Before the Ball...
Category
Late 19th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Gouache
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
Early 17th Century Old Masters 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
Early 18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Chalk
Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
Felice Pinariccio, known as Le Lasagna (active in Bologna during the 1560s-1570s)
Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome
Pen and brown ink, brown wash heighte...
Category
16th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
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
1760s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Carbon Pencil
The Death of Coresus
By Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Located in Paris, Île-de-France
JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE
(Tournus 1725 - 1805 Paris)
The Death of Coresus, circa 1750
Pen and brown ink, black ink tips, gray wash on black chalk, 455 x 385 cm
Bears on the reverse in ...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Allegory of the Treaty of Angoulême, a drawing attributed to Donato Mascagni
Located in PARIS, FR
We would like to thank Mrs. Ursula Verena Fischer Pace for suggesting the attribution to Donato Arsenio Mascagni.
We were immediately seduced by the rich tonalities of this allegory...
Category
1620s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
View of an Antique City, a wash landscape by Jan de Bisschop (1628 - 1671)
Located in PARIS, FR
The attribution to Jan de Bisschop has been confirmed by the RKD with the following comment: "We base this attribution on the dark washes, the subject represented and the monogram".
...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Pen
Brigante - Watercolor 1820 ca.
Located in Roma, IT
Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a.. Hand titled and signed. Representing brigand. Very good conditions.
Very beautiful and good quality watercolour both for the drawing a...
Category
1820s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
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
1750s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Ink
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
17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
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
Early 1700s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Costume drawings for ‘Ambassadeur de Siam’ and ‘La Sultana Reine’
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809)
‘Ambassadeur de Siam’ and ‘La Sultana Reine’
Both titled lower centre, the drawing of the ambassador inscribed with colours intended for the prints, e...
Category
Mid-18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pencil
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
Early 18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, India Ink, Gouache
The Triumph of Constantine the Great
Located in Chicago, IL
Inscribed on the verso: EE 27/10
Category
16th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Ink, Pen
View of Piazza San Marco, a tempera signed by Giacomo Guardi (1764 - 1835)
Located in PARIS, FR
Signed and localized on the verso :
"Vedute di parte dalla Piazza dif.a alla Loggetta e cam
panil parte della Zecca ed in lontan Proc.e vechie e parte della chiesa
punto preso vic...
Category
Early 19th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Tempera
Bunny Rabbit Couchant
Located in New York, NY
Signed and dated
Category
2010s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, India Ink
Follower of Francesco Guardi, Figures in a Mediterranean port by a Roman Arch
By Francesco Guardi
Located in Harkstead, GB
A lively, well executed sketch painted by a 19th century follower of Francesco Guardi
Follower of Francesco Guardi, 19th Century
Figures by a Roman Arch
Watercolour with ink and sc...
Category
19th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
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
18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel, Gouache
19th century watercolour of a Girl at her Dressing Table
Located in London, GB
Collections:
Muir Hetherington;
Sir John and Lady Witt, acquired 1974;
By descent to 2015.
Literature:
Tom Jones (ed.), William Henry Hunt 1790-1864, exh. cat., 1981, no. 145 (Girl in a bedroom);
John Witt, William Henry Hunt (1790-1864) Life and Work, London, 1982, no. 553, p. 194, colour pl. 16.
Exhibited:
Wolverhampton, Central Art Gallery, Preston, Harris Museum and Art Gallery and Hastings, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, William Henry Hunt 1790-1864, 1981, no. 145 as Girl in a bedroom (Lent by Sir John & Lady Witt)
Framed dimensions: 20 x 20.75 inches
This unusually charming and well-preserved watercolour was painted by William Henry Hunt in around 1833. Almost certainly depicting his young wife, Sarah, possibly in the interior of her family home at Bramley in Hampshire. This work shows Hunt’s remarkable virtuosity as a watercolourist, Hunt, for example, articulates the profile of his young wife, by leaving a reserve of white paper to suggest the light modelling her features. Throughout the 1830s Hunt made a sequence of richly painted interior views of both domestic and agricultural spaces which pay scrupulous attention to detail.
Hunt was born in London, the son of a tin-plate worker and japanner. J. L. Roget recorded the observation of Hunt’s uncle: ‘nervy, little Billy Hunt… was always a poor cripple, and as he was fit for nothing, they made an artist of him.’ At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the landscape painter John Varley for seven years, moving to live with Varley at 18 Broad Street, Golden Square, London. There he made close friends with both John Linnell and William Mulready. Hunt worked at the ‘Monro Academy’, at 8 Adelphi Terrace, London, the house of Dr Thomas Monro, an enthusiastic patron of landscape watercolourists. Through Monro, Hunt was introduced to the 5th Earl of Essex...
Category
19th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
Mercurio / Mercury
Located in Middletown, NY
A lovely, early drawing of the Roman god Mercury.
Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper, with a partial crown and shield watermark, 7 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches (184x 123 mm) (matrix). In go...
Category
Mid-18th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper
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
1710s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk
Frieze of antique figures, a drawing by the sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet
Located in PARIS, FR
Faithful to the neo-classical taste, sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet presents us with a frieze of antique figures executed in gray wash over pencil strokes, which is likely inspired b...
Category
Early 1800s Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pencil, Ink
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
Mid-17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Old Masters drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Old Masters drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add drawings and watercolor paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Michela De Vito, Jan Pieter Verdussen, Jan Peeter Verdussen, and Augustin de Saint-Aubin. Frequently made by artists working with Ink, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Old Masters drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 1.89 inches across are also available. Prices for drawings and watercolor paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $121 and tops out at $135,000, while the average work sells for $1,328.