Mid-18th Century Art

A fine pair of huge Italian 18' century Capriccio with Classical ruins, tempera oil on canvas . Atr.Pietro Paltronieri, il Mirandolese (Mirandola 1673-1741 Bologna). Measurements ...

The panels were designed ad decorations for 18th century french drugstores, and can be compared to those designed by the same Peyrotte (who was painter and furnitures designer for th...

Etching and  burin on paper on laid paper. Image dimension: 54.748.5 cm. Ninth plate from "Le Carceri d'Invenzione" (imaginary Prisons). Excellent impression in the second state o...

Antique Italian painting from the 18th century. Artwork oil on canvas (glued on a board) depicting a pleasant caprice, view with architectures and characters of good pictorial qualit...

Italian School, 18th century, circle of Giovanni Battista Piranesi Capriccio con arco (verso: study of a man) Brown ink on paper, 39 x 24.5 cm Unsigned Provenance: Private collec...

Human heads from Ancient Rome, from the Series "Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed", original etching from the end of the 18th Century, made by Various Old Masters. In very good con...

Roman bust for the Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed, original etching from the end of the 18th century, made by Various Old Masters. In very goo...

Sphinxes from Ancient Rome, from the Series "Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed", original etching from the end of the 18th Century, made by Various Old Masters. In very good condition, except for some stains along the margins. In this artwork are represented two sphinxes on the sides and a face in the center. On the lower center of the margin, the typical unit of measurement is shown: Palmo Napolitano and Palmo Romano. On the back, printed writings certainly derived from. Signed on the right and the left lower margins: G.M and Secondo de Angely...

Set of 4, Italian, circa 1750, original strike, hand-colored avian engravings from the Natural History of Birds by Saverio Manetti. Printed on laid paper. New custom double matting ...

Funeral Honours and Burial of the Peruvian leaders is a fine etching, hand-watercolored, realized by the engraver Gianfrancesco Pivati. This original print, representing the funera...

English Title: "The Temple of Neptune” Image dimensions: 38.3x53.2 cm. Very Fine Proof, showing an architectural apparatus for firework built by Paolo Posi in occasion of the Chinea Feast in 1760. Signed on plate lower-right margin. Original Title with a detailed capture under the picture. In Good condition, with a light abrasion higher-left corner and some little foxing in margins. Ref: G. Sassoli, Apparati architettonici per fuochi d'artificio, 1994, p. 137, n. 69 Master of Giovan Battista Piranesi...

Oil on canvas, 18th century, Flemish School, in the manner of Jan van Bloemen (1662–1749), an Antwerp painter who settled in Rome and was renowned for his idealized landscapes of the...

The legendary Greek god Perseus is the subject of this elegant half-bust by Ubaldo Gandolfi, a major painter and sculptor from Bologna. The son of Zeus and Danaë, Perseus was the le...

This portrait depicts us the trusted confidant of the Conflans d'Armentières family. More precisely, Julien Prieur was the fiscal procurator of the Marquisate of Armentières, playing...

Attributed to Jacques DUMONT aka DUMONT LE ROMAIN (Paris 1701 - 1781) Presumed portrait of Louis-Joseph de Formanoir (?-1732) Oil on canvas H. 91.5 cm; L. 73 cm Signed on the helmet:...

Artist: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French, 1707-1788) Title: "Ballota (Horehound); Marrubium (White Horehound)" (Didynamie, Gymospermie, Plate 508) Portfolio: Histoire N...

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...

This historical painting by Plasschaert in his classic trompe l'oeil style portrays documents and printed items on a wooden wall. This painting wa...

Louis-Gabriel BLANCHET (Versailles, 1701 – Rome, 1772) Presumed self-portrait of the artist Oil on canvas H. 73 cm; W. 60 cm Circa 1730 Originally presented in a Restoration period frame with a "Mignard" cartouche, this beautiful painting initially appeared to us as a work from northern Italy. However, it exuded a rather French form of refinement, suggesting that its artist may have assimilated a dual influence from both sides of the Alps. We thank our colleague and friend Philippe Mendès for spontaneously and judiciously "bringing out" the name of Louis-Gabriel Blanchet, a Romanized French portraitist, whose spirit and stylistic characteristics we clearly recognize here. Blanchet's "French" years, before his final departure for Rome in 1728, following his winning of the second Grand Prix for painting after Subleyras in 1727, are extremely poorly documented. His father, Gabriel, was valet to Blouin, himself Louis XIV's first valet at the time. According to Thierry Lefrançois, Blanchet was one of the few students of Nicolas Bertin (1667-1736), whose studio he is said to have joined in the early 1720s. At a baptism on March 24, 1724, where he was godfather, he is mentioned as a painter in the picture store of the Duke of Antin, the director of buildings between 1708 and 1736. At this time, he was probably already married to Jeanne Quément, with whom he had a daughter also named Jeanne, who would marry Nicolas Aviet, the son of a valet in the queen's wardrobe, in Versailles in 1738. When Blanchet arrived in Rome in October 1728, he was accompanied by Subleyras, Trémolières, and Slodtz. He enjoyed the goodwill of Vleughels, the director of the Académie de France, which had been based at the Palazzo Mancini since 1725, even though the latter was not always kind to our resident. From 1732, he was under the protection of the Duke of Saint-Aignan when he took up his post as ambassador to Rome. Along with Slodtz and Subleyras, they formed a trio of friends, joined by Joseph Vernet shortly after his arrival in Rome in 1734. Slodtz and Blanchet, on the occasion of Subleyras's marriage in 1739, were there to attest that their friend was not bound by any marital commitment, and Blanchet was a witness at Vernet's wedding in 1745. It is most likely from these early years in Rome that our portrait of the artist dates, the expression and turn of his face irresistibly reminiscent of a self-portrait. The still relatively youthful features may correspond to Blanchet's thirty-something years, and the fluffy wig was still fashionable at this time. The painting fits well with the depiction of a young painter wanting to display both the beginnings of success and a certain simplicity or restraint. A slight smile expresses a form of assurance in this man with a gentle, sincere gaze and a face radiating a keen sense of wit. We find here the air of intimacy present in almost all of Blanchet's portraits, even those from the 1750s and 1760s, as well as an almost complicity with the viewer. The spirit of the painting is quite close to that of the presumed portrait of Bouchardon (painted around 1730) and the portrait of Pannini, painted in 1736, but it possesses a more natural quality, notably thanks to the absence of decorum. Our work exhibits the characteristics of Blanchet's paintings: elegance, luminosity (especially in the whites), vibrant and refined colors (here, the harmony of the garnet of the garment and the slate blue of the background, whose uniformity is tempered by a very sketched landscape and a grove of greenery), light complexions, rather rosy cheekbones, often full lips, and rather tight framing. According to the Academy's rules, Blanchet's stay should have ended in the spring of 1732, but, for reasons unknown, he remained in the Eternal City until his death, as did his friend Subleyras, with whom he shared accommodation until the late 1730s. The latter regularly called upon him to collaborate on his paintings, such as The Meal at Simon's. Through Saint-Aignan's intervention, Blanchet was employed in the late 1730s by the Stuart princely family, then exiled in Italy. He notably produced copies (now lost) after Liotard of the portraits of Charles Edward and Henry Benedict, the sons of James III Stuart. The latter also commissioned three other portraits (now in the National Portrait Gallery in London), whose more formal character contrasts with the intimate spirit of Blanchet's portraits. Blanchet frequented English painters, such as the landscape painter Richard Wilson, and studied with the Scottish portraitist Katherine Read...

In the mid-18th century, Bénard was famous for his genre paintings, portraits and landscapes. Drawing on Jean-Antoine Watteau’s sense of poetry and Jean –Honoré Fragonard’s use of b...

This refined 18th-century French red chalk study sheet presents a group of figures derived from The Feast at the House of Simon the Pharisee by Jean Jouvenet, through the intermediar...

Painting, oil on canvas, measuring 100 x 88 cm without frame and 115 x 110 with an excellent early 18th century coeval frame of the Emilian school. Painted, fine, refined and detail...

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Italian 1720-1778) VEDUTA DEGLI AVANZI De’MAUSOLEI E DELLE FABBRICHE…c 1756 (Hind 83; Focillon 20.A.293; Giesecke 116; Wilton-E...

AMERICAN REVOLUTION THE ATTEMPT TO LAND A BISHOP IN AMERICA, 1768 (LC Cresswell 636) Designed & for the "Political Register", Engraved, 1768, printed above. Engraving. Sheet 7 3...

Titre : Portrait de jeune femme à la coiffe noire Artiste : Entourage de Charles-André Van Loo (1705–1765) École : Française, XVIIIe siècle Technique : Huile sur panneau Dimensio...

Barbara Regina Dietzsch, 1706-1783 White Primrose, Japanese Quince, a Beetle, and a Butterfly, ca. 1730 Opaque watercolor painting inscribed on...

Giovanni Domenico Gambone (1720 - 1793) Title: Pair of Capricci Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: without frame 85 x 112 cm - with frame 97 x 124 cm Not signed The price is intended for the couple of paintings. Expertise by Professor Giancarlo Sestieri, art historian This pair of paintings by Giovanni Domenico Gambone (1720 – 1793) depicts an architectural capriccio with archaeological ruins and people who interact with each other. In one of the two artworks we can easily see a man on a horse...

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...

- ANNA CATERINA GILLI or GILLI Anna Caterina Turin 1729- 1751 Her paintings recorded in Turin as a decorative artist for the Royal Palace and the Stupinigi, working in a simil...

David Hall McKewan (English, 1817-1873) Raglan Castle Watercolor on paper, 9 x 13 inches (sight) David Hall McKewan studied watercolor painting under David Cox (the elder) and exhib...

Etching on light cream laid paper, 8 x 5 1/2 inches (200 x 138 mm), 1/8-inch margins. Minor repairs, including expertly repaired lower right corner, and minor light in-painting at l...

Giuseppe Bonito (Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, 1707 - Naples, Italy, 1789) Title: The Painter's Studio or Allegory of Painting Medium: Oil on canvas ...

This is an original rare and extremely collectible first edition John James Audubon hand colored lithograph entitled "Long-billed Curlew", No. 71, Plate 355, from Audubon's "Birds of America. It was lithographed, printed and colored by J. T. Bowen and published in Philadelphia between 1840-1844. It depicts a male and a female Long-billed Curlew standing on a grassy mound with water and the skyline of the city of Charleston...

Francesco GUARDI (1712-1793) Portrait of a Lady Oil on copper 5 1/8 x 4 3/8 in 13 x 11 cm Unsigned Provenance Private collection, France We are pleased to present an exceptional...

Bowles, Thomas III (after John Donowell) John Bowles & Richard Wilkinson, 1751. Steel engraving with extensive hand coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper, 10 1/4 x 16 inches (...

Early 18th century museum quality Nature Morte still life Dutch or French oil painting. This Nature Morte painting has all the Classic attributes or a masterpiece showing various ga...

Louis Chalon (Dutch, 1687-1741) Signed: L. Chalon 1732 (Lower, Center) " Picturesque View of Rhineland ", 1732 Oil on Canvas 19" x 24" Housed in a 3" Carved Frame made by Hussar...

An image that originally appeared in an astrological calendar for the year 1766. Tokyo: Shuei-Sha, 1766. Woodblock print in colors printed on laid mulberry paper, 10 3/4 x 7 7/8 in...

"Vaso Cinerario di Gran Mole. Le Teste dei Giovenchi mostrano di reggere it pesante Festone composto di Frutti Fiori Grans ed use. Il tuto Necefsario all Vita Umana. Il Restante degl...

Evangelista Schiano (attr.) (active in the 18th century) Title: Saint Gennaro Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: without frame 102 x 74 cm - with frame 126.5 x 100 cm 19th century car...

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (1710-1778) UNA DELLE QUATTRO FIGURE RAPPRESENTANTI QUATTTRO VITTORIE, (Focillon 330, Wilton-Ely 463) 1750-1756 Etching, Plate 48 from “Le Antichita Romane“ vol. 3. Engraved by Jean Barbault...

A hand-colored copperplate engraving of a bird and plants by Mark Catesby (1683-1749) entitled "The Crested Titmous" from "The Natural History of Carolina, Georgia, Florida and the Bahama Islands", published in 1731. It depicts a small Crested Titmous bird, facing left, perched on the stem of a plant with clusters of mauve colored star-like flowers. This original Catesby hand-colored engraving, on laid paper with a large central Fleur-de-Lys watermark, is presented in a cream color French mat. The mat measures 20" x 15.5" and the sheet measures 18.75" x 14.75". Mark Catesby was born in England to a prosperous family, but he traveled to America, first to visit his sister and her husband in 1712. From 1712 to 1719 he explored America observing its birds and plants, taking notes, creating drawings and collecting specimens. He returned to England with this material and created more detailed drawings. His next visit to America 1722-1726 allowed for more detailed research. Upon his return to England he created his monumental and beautiful work "The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and Bahama Islands", which was published in London in two folio volumes of 11 parts each consisting of 20 plates...

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...

18th-Century Pastoral Scene Dutch School, 18th century oil on canvas, framed Framed: 22 x 25.5 inches Canvas : 18.5 x 22 inches Provenance: private collection, France Condition: very...

Engraving on light wove paper with a large Amsterdam Coat of Arms watermark, 9 5/16 x 7 1/2 inches (236 x 190 mm), narrow margins. Scattered lig...

Antique 18th-century Italian painting. Oil on canvas, first canvas, artwork depicting a rural genre scene set in an idealized countryside landscape. The composition's focal point is ...

This is an original 18th century hand-colored map entitled "A New & Accurate Map of Europe Drawn from the Best Authorities Assisted by the Most Improved Modern Charts and Maps." by E...

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BRITISH CARICATURE THE HAPPY CONSULTATION, or MODERN MATCH, 1769 (DG 4335) ...

English Delftware blue and white plate, painted with a flower and bird design Diameter: 8 3/4 inches (22.25 cm) Delftware is also known as Delft Blue, was originally a general term ...

Camera sepolcrale Etching 1743 Signed in the bottom left corner From: Prima Parte, 1743 Second edition: 1750-1778 Watermark: R 37-39 A lifetime impression printed during Piranesi’s life, before the plates are moved to Paris by his sons in the 1790’s Condition: Excellent Image size: 14 5/8 x 9 3/4 inches Reference: Robison 20 iii/V Piranesi In Rome: Prima Parte di Architetture e Prospettive "Although Piranesi studied architecture in Venice, he never was able to find work in the field other than a few jobs involving remodeling in Rome. While Piranesi was struggling to support his architectural endeavors upon his arrival in Rome in 1740, he spent a short period of time in the studio of master painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) in addition to his apprenticeship with Giuseppe Vasi. The first production of Piranesi’s early years in Rome and a culmination of his training under Vasi, Tiepolo, and his uncle, was the Prima Parte di Architetture e Prospettive (1743). The Prima Parte was a collection of twelve etchings of imaginary temples, palaces, ruins, and a prison. During this time, Piranesi was still developing the unique style of etching he is known for today, and as such the Prima Parte differs significantly in technique compared to later works. In the Frontispiece of the Prima Parte, Piranesi’s lines are definite and exact with very little flow to them, designed in the form of traditional etching. The detail is immaculate, and yet perspective of the piece is oddly simple and familiar to the viewer. Piranesi’s technique employs miniscule markings and lines, intricately woven together to create a stippling effect. The Prima Parte, described as “rigid” by art historian Jonathan Scott, came to be seen as a stark contrast to his later sketches, which were much lighter and freer. Influenced by the style of Tiepolo, which epitomized the lightness and brightness of the Rococo period, Piranesi adopted some of the more painterly techniques of the masters he apprenticed under. Piranesi made the medium of etching appear as though it was a sketch or a painting, hence a “freer” and more fluid design in his later works. For example, the frontispiece of the Prima Parte read as an etching to Piranesi’s audience, but in his later vedute, the style of etching almost appears to be made of brushstrokes. Moreover, at the same time Piranesi was working on the Prima Parte, he aided the artist Giambattista Nolli. There is a small section of Nolli’s map...

Italian School Italian, 18th Century Venetian Ruins Oil on canvas 20 by 26 in, w/ frame 24 by 30 in

This an 18th century copper plate engraved portrait of Sir Francis Drake by Jacobus Houbraken, after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, from "The Hea...

Artist: Benjamin Cole (English, c. 1697-1783) Title: "The South West Prospect of St. Mary's Church in the Strand" Portfolio: The History and Survey of London from its Foundation to t...

This is an original 18th century hand-colored map entitled "An Accurate Chart of The Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea's; with the Archipelago & Part of the Black Sea. Exhibiting all th...

Copper-line engraving by Binet after Charles Monnet (1732-1808). Agenor tells Cadmus to go and look for his sister Europae. From 'Les Metamorphoses d'...

The Study of Hand after Bouchardon is an etching realized by Nicholas Cochin in 1755. Signed on the plate. Good conditions. The artwork is depicted through confident strokes. The...

This is a hand-colored engraving of a parrot bird entitled "La Bondree (Bird of Prey)" by Francois Nicolas Martinet, plate 420 from 'Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux' in association wi...

By examining with interest this lively "Still life" (oil painting on oval canvas, 60 x 80 cm without frame and 78 x 88 cm with frame), set in the open air in a park with a small foun...

Etching on paper realized by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1862-1754). Engraved by Franz Xaver Jungwirth (1720-1790). Published by Johann Christian Leopold. Good condition

This is an original rare and extremely collectible first edition John James Audubon hand colored lithograph entitled "Long-billed Curlew", No. 71, Plate 355, from Audubon's "Birds of America. It was lithographed, printed and colored by J. T. Bowen and published in Philadelphia between 1840-1844. It depicts a male and a female Long-billed Curlew standing on a grassy mound with water and the skyline of the city of Charleston...