Charles Nicolas Cochin
1715-1790
The Muse of Epic Poetry Dictating to Tasso and Giving Him a Scroll with the Names of the Warriors
Full sheet: 4 9/16 x 6 inches (116 x 157 mm); design area: 2 1/2 x 5 inches (63 x 127 mm)
Black chalk on gray paper; squared in black chalk for transfer.
1989.41:16
Purchase.
Notes
Watermark: Fragment, flat pedestal with horse, similar to Churchill 192. Watermark, beta radiograph. platform, flur de lis, horse. 218375wm_1989_41_16_WM_beta.jpg
This sheet belongs to an ensemble of eighteen preparatory sketches (seven for vignettes and eleven for headpieces) for illustrations and two prints after Cochin for an 1784-85 edition of Torquato Tasso's "La Gerusalemme Liberata" published in Paris by François Ambroise Didot. These illustrations were commissioned by Monsieur, the Comte de Provence and the brother of Louis XVI who later reigned as Louis XVIII (1755-1824). The eighteen drawings were part of an album of 102 drawings broken up and sold in several lots by Sotheby's, London, in 1970. The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the headpiece to Canto XVII, Ott. 33. The corresponding finished drawing is in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, and is signed and dated by the artist.
This sheet belongs to an ensemble of eighteen preparatory sketches (seven for vignettes and eleven for headpieces) for illustrations and two prints after Cochin for an 1784-85 edition of Torquato Tasso's "La Gerusalemme Liberata" published in Paris by François Ambroise Didot. These illustrations were commissioned by Monsieur, the Comte de Provence and the brother of Louis XVI who later reigned as Louis XVIII (1755-1824). The eighteen drawings were part of an album of 102 drawings broken up and sold in several lots by Sotheby's, London, in 1970. The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the headpiece to Canto XVII, Ott. 33. The corresponding finished drawing is in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, and is signed and dated by the artist.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed in pen and brown ink, above the design, "3 / Canto XVII. Ott. 33 / ott. 3 / De gauche a droitte". The scrolls next to the Muse of Epic Poetry are inscribed with the names of the famous epic poems of the antique: "ENEIDE, ILLIADE, ODISSEE". Collector's mark of the Comte Nicholas A. Koucheleff-Bezborodko stamped in blue at lower right corner (Lugt 1629).
Associated names
Tasso, Torquato, 1544-1595. Gerusalemme liberata.
Koucheleff-Bezborodko, Nicolas A., Comte, 1834-1862, former owner.
Suchtelen, J. P. van, Comte, 1751-1836, former owner.
Wasserman, Eugène von, former owner.
Willems, Jacques, 1870-1957, former owner.
Stein, Adolphe, former owner.
Koucheleff-Bezborodko, Nicolas A., Comte, 1834-1862, former owner.
Suchtelen, J. P. van, Comte, 1751-1836, former owner.
Wasserman, Eugène von, former owner.
Willems, Jacques, 1870-1957, former owner.
Stein, Adolphe, former owner.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
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Department