Old Masters Nude Drawings and Watercolors

GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI, known as GUERCINO (1591-1666) Leaning Nude Man (recto); Kneeling Man, Hands Tied Behind His Back (verso) Black chalk heightened with white on light blu...

Italian School, 16th Century Studies of Figures Pen and ink on paper, 23 × 24 cm Unsigned A finely executed sheet presenting vigorous figure studies, drawn with assured pen strok...

Charcoal on paper, 60cm x 42cm, (74cm x 60cm framed). The picture is framed behind museum quality non-reflective UV glass. Drawings and paintings of the nude were central to academ...

Italian School, 16th century Virgin and Child Pen, brown ink on paper 16.5 x 11 cm Unsigned Provenance: Private collection This sheet, attributed to the Italian school of the 16...

Roman School, 17th century, circa 1606 to 1630 Circle of Giovanni Baglione (Rome, 1566 to 1643/44) The Penitent Saint Peter, also known as Saint Peter and the Rooster Pen and brown...

Italian School, late 16th century Head of a Man and Écorché Studies of Arms Red chalk on laid paper, 21 x 11 cm Provenance: Collection of Michael Jaffé CBE (1923–1997), English art historian and Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Private collection, France This drawing, attributed to the Italian School of the late 16th century, demonstrates the influence of Michelangelo’s approach to anatomy and expression. The sheet combines two distinct studies: an anatomical rendering of arms in the écorché technique, focusing on the musculature and skeletal details, and a head of a man, drawn with careful attention to light and shadow. The use of red chalk lends the work warmth and immediacy, qualities often associated with Renaissance studies of the human form. The écorché studies reflect the Renaissance fascination with anatomy as both an artistic and scientific pursuit. The detailed depiction of the musculature suggests the artist’s interest in understanding the mechanics of the body, a practice heavily influenced by Michelangelo’s drawings...

Follower of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino (Cento 1591 – 1666 Bologna) Sibyl or bust-length woman, seen in profile to the left, wearing a turban Red chalk on paper,...

Attributed to Jacob JORDAENS (Antwerp 1593–1678) Study of Feet and a Figure Sketch Red and black chalk on laid paper 25.9 × 18.4 cm (10¼ × 7¼ in.) Unsigned Minor losses, folds, an...

This spectacular red chalk drawing depicts an elderly woman, her eyes bulging, her hand stretched out towards the sky. This disturbing character, who seems close to dementia, and the elongation of her arm with its Mannerist overtones, plunge us into the Florentine artistic milieu of the first half of the 17th century. The proximity of this drawing to some characters in the fresco in the Pitti Palace representing The Muses, Poets and Philosophers chased from Parnassus, the last masterpiece of Giovanni da San Giovanni, leads us to propose an attribution to this artist and a dating of around 1635-1636. 1. Giovanni da San Giovanni, the painter of contradiction We take here the title of the monography dedicated to the artist by Anna Banti in 1977, which remains the reference book for this artist. The son of a notary, Giovanni Mannozzi, known as Giovanni da San Giovanni, abandoned his studies to go to Florence at the age of sixteen, where he entered the studio of Matteo Rosselli (1578 - 1650) around 1609 and enrolled in the Academy of Drawing Arts in 1612. Around 1615 he produced his first known works, mainly frescoes for the city's tabernacles. He became famous in Florence for his originality, combining an obsessive application to the study of drawing and the reading of poetry and history with a disheveled appearance. Between 1619 and 1620 he decorated the facade of the Antella Palace in Piazza Santa Croce, a decoration that still partly survives today. The death of Cosimo II in 1621 put an end to the Florentine building activity and Giovanni da San Giovanni left for Rome to find other sponsors with the painter Francesco Furini...

Roman School (circa 1590–1620) Study of a Male Executioner Black chalk on laid paper, 275 x 199 mm Unsigned Formerly Giancarlo Sestieri Collection This dynamic figure study, exe...

We would like to thank Juliette Parmentier-Courreau of the Custodia Foundation for her welcome and support during the consultation of Glomy’s Journal des Ouvrages. This spectacularly large "feuille de desseins ajustés" commissioned by François Boucher from Jean-Baptiste Glomy is emblematic of the painter's art and mastery of rocaille. It is also fully representative of the taste of this period in the field of decorative arts. The largest of these three drawings, placed at the bottom of the composition, is particularly interesting: dating from around 1756, it constitutes a modello (apparently unpublished) for the frontispiece of the "Catalogue des tableaux de Monsieur de Julienne"), preserved in the Morgan Library in New York. 1. François Boucher, the master of French rocaille The extraordinary career of Francois Boucher was unmatched by his contemporaries in versatility, consistency and output. For many, particularly the writers and collectors who led the revival of interest in the French rococo during the last century, his sensuous beauties and plump cupids represent the French eighteenth century at its most typical. His facility with the brush, even when betraying the occasional superficiality of his art, enabled him to master every aspect of painting – history and mythology, portraiture, landscape, ordinary life and, as part of larger compositions, even still life. He had been trained as an engraver, and the skills of a draftsman, which he imbued in the studio of Jean-Francois Cars (1661 – 1738), stood him in good stead throughout his career; his delightful drawings are one of the most sought-after aspects of his oeuvre. As a student of Francois Lemoyne (1688 - 1737), he mastered the art of composition. The four years he spent in Italy, from 1727-1731, educated him in the works of the masters, classics and history, that his modest upbringing had denied him. On his return to Paris in 1734, he gained full membership of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with his splendid Rinaldo and Armida (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Although, throughout his career, he occasionally painted subjects taken from the Bible, and would always have considered himself first as a history painter, his own repertoire of heroines, seductresses, flirtatious peasant girls and erotic beauties was better suited to a lighter, more decorative subject matter. His mastery of technique and composition enabled him to move from large scale tapestry...

Attributed to Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna, 1625 – 1684) Study of a Seated Male Nude, possibly a Satyr Red chalk on paper Bears inscription Carracci lower left; bears the collect...

Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777)  A Mythological scene Pen and black ink on paper Bears an old inscription with the name of the artist on the lower left bo...

Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777)  Putti playing around a sculpture, a mythological scene Pen and brown ink on paper 15.4 x 31 cm In good condition The ancient mount has has a smal...

This elegant composition, whose curved shape suggests that it was intended for some decorative project, illustrates Moitte's shift around 1780 towards the neoclassical movement, insp...

Faithful to the neo-classical taste, sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet presents us with a frieze of antique figures executed in gray wash over pencil strokes, which is likely inspired b...