Month: June 2018

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770)

by

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Zephyrus and Flora Venice, about 1750 Pen, brown wash and black chalk on paper 23.9 x 33 cm Tiepelo made this drawing as a study for the principal figures in the ceiling fresco he painted for the Room of Mirrors in the Palazzo Labia in Venice. He also produced a small oil … Read more

Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693)

by

Nicolaes Maes Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath Dutch, about 1670-80 Pen and brown wash 20.5 x 32.5 cm The subject is from the ‘Kings’, XVII: 10. This drawing shows the biblical story from Kings during which the Lord directs Elijah to the town gates of Zarephath where a widow has been directed to provide … Read more

Ascribed to Pietro Antonio Novelli (1729-1804)

by

Ascribed to Pietro Antonio Novelli A Music Party Venice, about 1750 Pen and brown wash over black chalk 25 x 37.3 cm This small scale domestic scene, known as a conservation piece, was characteristic of mid 18th century art. In this example from Venice, the music party takes place during the annual carnival – the … Read more

Lambert Doomer (1622/3-1700)

by

Lambert Doomer Rock Dwellings at Saumur on the Loire Dutch, 1646 Pen with grey and brown washes 22.8 x 36.5 cm The inhabitants of a rock dwelling execute their daily tasks. This scene at Saumur is on of a number of drawings made in the Loire Valley by the artist en route from Nantes in … Read more

Francesco Guardi (1712-1793)

by

Francesco Guardi A Coastal Scene Venice, the 1770s Pen and brown wash with traces of black chalk 25.1 x 36.9 cm In addition to his topographical views of Venice, Francesco Guardi also produced imaginary landscapes such as this coastal scene from the 1770s. Such drawings repeat the same range of motifs taken from the Venetian … Read more

Pierre Étienne Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867)

by

Pierre Étienne Théodore Rousseau Oaks Among Boulders Barbizon, 1861 Etching Plate: 13.4 x 21 cm; paper: 30 x 40 cm; mount: 40.5 x 55.6 cm  This etching was made from Rousseau’s painting La Chene de Roches and published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Rousseau depicts the heart of the forest untouched by human intervention. Rousseau’s … Read more

Jean Morin (c. 1590-1650)

by

Jean Morin Omer Talon  Paris, early 1650s Engraving Mount: 55.7 x 40.5 cm  This portrait is based on Philippe de Champaigne’s full-length painting of Omer Talon (1595-1652) produced in 1649. Champaigne was a founder of the French Academy in the mid 17th century and is best known for his portraits of royalty and important political … Read more

Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827)

by

Thomas Rowlandson Dressing for the Masquerade  London, 1790 Tinted etching Paper: 37.3 x 51.3 cm; mount: 51.7 x 63 cm  The most obvious differences between this print and Rowlandson’s original drawing (Inv. No. 48.9) are the colours. The print has been hand tinted and consequently each version is slightly different from the others. The general … Read more

Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677)

by

Wenceslaus Hollar The Thames Below Westminster Pier London, about 1638 Pen and brown ink  14.6 x 40.1 cm  This is an example of Hollar’s comparatively rare drawings as opposed to his etchings of English scenery. This view is taken looking upstream. The buildings are marked as ‘Lambeth House’, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, … Read more

Lovis Corinth (1858-1925)

by

Lovis Corinth Christ on the Cross (Christus am Kreuz) Berlin, 1919 Woodcut Plate: 51 x 43 m; mount: 73 x 59 cm  Christ is shown at his crucifixion, his head crowned by a searing sun and his body scored by the deep lines carved in the wood. Corinth uses chaotic hatched lines to emphasis Christ’s … Read more

Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677)

by

Wenceslaus Hollar Muscarum Scarabeorum Vermiumque Variae Figurae et Formae 1646 Etchings Wenclaus Hollar was born in Prague, but worked across Europe including in Stuttgart, Strasburg, Frankfurt and Cologne, where he became employed by Thomas Howard, the Earl of Arundel (1585-1646). Howard was a court member of King Charles I, and renowned for his collection of art and … Read more

Antoon Derkzen van Angeren (1878-1961)

by

Antoon Derkzen van Angeren Two Skulls Dutch, 1908-9 Etching 30 x 39.7 cm This etching revives the distinctive Dutch seventeenth-century painting category of vanitas still-life. One or more skulls in isolation was a tradition established by Angeren’s seventeenth-century predecessor, Hercules Seers (1589/90-1633/38). Purchased 2001 (No. 2001.1).

Arthur Illies (1870-1952)

by

Arthur Illies Ripe Cornfield: Evening (Ahrenfeld am Abend) Hamburg, 1896 Colour etching on zinc 18.5 x 14.5 cm A fine impression on wove paper as issued in Pan in an edition of 1,600. This extraordinary colour etching is the product of deep biting a zinc plate and of one printing only. The colours are applied … Read more

attributed to Paolo Cailiari (1528-1588)

by

attributed to Paolo Cailiari Meekness Venice, 1575-7 Pen and brown wash heightened with bodycolour on blue paper 18.9 x 31.0 cm Related to the ceiling paintings of the same subject by Veronese in the Sala del Colegio of the Doge’s Palace, Venice. Purchased 1937 (No. 37.2)

Carlo Maratti (1625-1713)

by

Carlo Maratti Study for the Head of St Charles Borromeo Rome, 1658-90 Red chalk heightened with white on blue paper 36.1 x 27.9 cm This drawing is a study for the head of the figure of Saint Carlo Borromeo in the High Altarpiece of the Church of  S. Carlo al Corso, Rome. This study represents … Read more

Claude Lorrain (1604/5-1682)

by

Claude Lorrain Sunrise Rome, 1634 Etching Paper: 12.9 x 20 cm; mount: 40.5 x 56 cm This marine scene bustles with activity as figures gesticulate, exchange glances and huddle in groups. The sun, which faintly be seen on the horizon, floods the picture with light and blurs the distant mountains. Opposite the triumphal Arch of … Read more

Jacques-Philippe Lebas (1707-1783) after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779)

by

Jacques-Philippe Lebas after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin Le Négligé Paris, 1741 Engraving Paper: 38.6 x 27.4 cm; mount: 63 x 51.5 cm Lebas’ print reproduces ‘The Morning Toilette’, painted by Chardin (1669-1779) in 1741. Many of Chardin’s pictures were of domestic interiors, scenes of childhood and maternal love, all of which were fashionable with 18th-century French audiences. … Read more

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

by

Albrecht Dürer A Man with an Oar Netherlands, about 1520/21 Pen and brown ink 16 x 10.4 cm  This fine drawing is one of a number of works believed to have been made during Dürer’s trip to the Netherlands in around 1520-21. It was among those taken from the museum of the Lubomirski family, established … Read more

Charles Samuel Keene (1823-1891)

by

Charles Samuel Keene The Coal Famine British, mid 1800s Pen and brown ink 16.8 x 11.4 cm A lady and a gentleman are seated either side of a table in overcoats and hats. The lady on the left reads an invitation to a ‘Fire Party.’ There is another work of the same subject in the … Read more

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

by

James Abbott McNeill Whistler The Lime Burner London, 1859, published 1871 Etching with drypoint Plate: 25 x 18 cm; mount: 55.6 x 40.5 cm This is one of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames which Whistler completed by 1861. They resulted from a campaign of drawing along the river in which the artist sought … Read more

Jan Both (c. 1618-1652)

by

Jan Both The Mule Driver Netherlands, 1630s Etching  22 x 29.5 cm The mule with a low-slung head struggling under the weight of a heavy load is a motif that frequently appears in Both’s Italianate landscape scenes. For many, the mule was an affordable means of transport and an ideal working animal, combining the endurance … Read more

Samuel Palmer (1805-1881)

by

Samuel Palmer The Vine London, 1852 Etching Plate: 30.5 x 21.7 cm; paper: 41.5 x 29.5 cm; mount: 55.5 x 40.4 cm  Bacchus, the Roman god of agriculture and wine, leaps from his chariot in a burst of bright light to meet his followers. Vines creep across the ground and entwine themselves around trees, while … Read more

Samuel Palmer (1805-1881)

by

Samuel Palmer The Cypress Grove Redhill, Surrey, about 1880, completed 1883 Etching 13 x 19 cm  Set amid a mountainous nocturnal landscape, a group of nymphs mourn for the shepherd Daphnis who has been blinded by the nymph Nomia for being unfaithful. Loosely based on Virgil’s Eclogues (42-39 B.C.), this work may have been inspired … Read more

Agostino Carracci (1557-1602)

by

Agostino Carracci Ecce Homo Bologna, 1587 Etching Paper: 45 x 34.4 cm; mount: 63 x 51.5 cm  Depicting a standard cycle of the Passion of Christ, the words ‘Ecce Homo’ (‘Behold the Man’) were used by Pontius Pilate to present Christ to the jeering crowds before his crucifixion. Mary swoons in the foreground, an unusual … Read more

Johann Baptist Zwecker (1814-1876)

by

Johann Baptist Zwecker Young Love Düsseldorf, 1840 Etching 24.1 x 28.7 cm  This Romantic etching is a highly atmospheric scene of love and death on a moonlit mountainside, taken from Heinrich Heine’s ‘Buch de Lieder’. ‘Love, O Love, it was your might, brought us to our sorry plight’. Their existence blighted by self-destructive love, ghostly … Read more