Price: $8,000.00
SKU: 82195
MEDIUM: Watercolor with pen & ink drawing,
DATE: undated c 1770.
EDITION SIZE: Paper size 13 x 19 1/2" (33 x 49.4 cm).
DESCRIPTION: Trompe l'oeil watercolors showing 'works on paper' within an architectural ruin. Top image showing Central figure of a woman dressed in white. The sheet music, under the central figure, cleverly follows the structural horizon line tying everything together. The copying skill by this unidentified artist can be seen in his/her interest and ability to capture the quality of stipple engraving and different types of printed text, as well as recreating the lines of an engraved landscape with a brush. Some other details include a map of France showing a bit of the Mediterranean Sea and a page with Arabic writing. Beautifully composed - this piece seems to flatten time by the artist’s specific selections and repetition of motifs. LOWER IMAGE with central figure in a blue dress. The central portrait of a young girl wearing a pink bow is surrounded by unfolding paper sheets. Each graphic sheet depicts a different scene - a mythological story, architectural detail, a landscape, and genre scene, as well as beautifully recreated text sheets in German, Greek, Italian and French languages. Whether this assortment of ephemera is selectively compiled with intended meaning or loosely assembled is not clear, although we lean toward the former based on the artist’s articulate ability for detail. The lower right figure is taken from an engraving after the painting 'Jeune fille qui fait voler un oiseau' (1717) by Jean Raoux. Viewing the pair together another layer of questions arises. Is this a mother and daughter portrait or possibly one individual in youth and in later years? Artwork, on both sheets, is painted to the paper edge - finished with two ruled lines. On laid watermarked paper with old paper backing.
ADDITIONAL INFO: Framed in ornamental relief molding finished with gold leaf. Archival mat with silk fabric and gold bevel. From the Geoffrey Beene Collection.
CONDITION: Both are in good condition. The 'woman in white' has some subtle foxing, and the 'young woman in blue' has two water stains - one just above the other just below central oval portrait. Sold as pair.
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