Louis Licherie
1629-1687
St. Bruno Visited by Count Roger in the Wilderness of Calabria
ca. 1670
17 5/16 x 21 1/8 inches (440 x 529 mm)
Red and black chalk on light brown paper; squared with a stylus; ruled border in black and red chalk.
1961.44
Purchase.
Notes
Licherie's greatest achievement was a decorative cycle devoted to St. Bruno, the eleventh-century founder of the Carthusian order, for the Charterhouse of Bourgfontaine, located in northern France near the Belgian border. The cycle was almost entirely destroyed during the Revolution and thus little known, and Licherie's drawings were long attributed to Le Sueur. Licherie's work echoes the academic style of Le Brun, who supported the younger artist and appointed him to head the drawing school at the Gobelins tapestry manufactory in 1667. This working compositional drawing shows the saint being visited by Duke Roger of Calabria, whose offer to make Bruno archbishop is refused. -- Exhibition Label, From "Poussin, Claude, and French Drawing in the Classical Age"
Inscriptions/Markings
Various inscriptions on verso in graphite, including name, "G. Harz".
Watermark: Countermark: I LEBLOYS (a seventeenth century Parisian paper merchant).
Watermark: Countermark: I LEBLOYS (a seventeenth century Parisian paper merchant).
Associated names
Le Sueur, Eustache, 1616-1655, Formerly attributed to.
Russell, Archibald George Blomefield, 1879-1955, former owner.
Wooley, Leonard, Sir, former owner.
Russell, Archibald George Blomefield, 1879-1955, former owner.
Wooley, Leonard, Sir, former owner.
Bibliography
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 154 (as attributed to Eustache Le Sueur).
Adams, Frederick B., Jr., comp. Twelfth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1962. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1963, p. 78-80 (as Eustache Le Sueur).
Adams, Frederick B., Jr., comp. Twelfth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1962. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1963, p. 78-80 (as Eustache Le Sueur).
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
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