Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Venus on Clouds (left). Scene of Devastation (right)

Hubert François Gravelot
1699-1773

Venus on Clouds (left). Scene of Devastation (right)

ca. 1761
1 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches (48 x 124 mm)
Graphite on paper; incised with the stylus.
1968.15:42

Gift of John F. Fleming.

Notes
Gravelot's sketches on this sheet are for two small title-page vignettes to Books I and II of “Della Nature delle Cose” by Titus Lucretius Carus (London, 1761). The study at left shows Venus reclining on a bed of clouds, with Cupid at left. The sketch at right shows an apparent massacre, with people fleeing over the fallen bodies of women and children. Gravelot's designs were engraved by Ferdinando Gregori (1743-1804)
Associated names
Fourquevaux, Joseph de Beccarie de Pavie, marquis de, 1762-1841, former owner.
Bocher, Emmanuel, 1835-1919, former owner.
Olry-Roederer, Léon, 1869-1932, former owner.
Rosenbach, A. S. W. (Abraham Simon Wolf), 1876-1952, former owner.
Fleming, John F. (John Francis), 1910-1987, former owner.
Bibliography
Kraemer, Ruth S. "Drawings by Gravelot in the Morgan Library." Master drawings, XX (Spring 1982), p. 9, no. 12, reproduced plate 6b.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department