Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

Jacques-Louis David
Paris 1748 - 1825 Brussels
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Landscape with Houses on the right and on the left, a Church behind a group of Trees
Pen and black ink and point of the brush and grey wash over traces of black chalk.
173 x 261mm (6 7 /8 x 10 1 /4 in.)
Provenance: Included in the posthumous inventory
of Madame David, dated 27 June 1826: ‘Douze grands
livres contenant des dessins & des calques Etudes
de M. David en Italie …’, in folio 17; by descent
to Eugène and Jules David (L.839) and (L.1437);
the artist’s studio sale, Paris 17 April 1826, part of
lot 66, an album: ‘Douze grands livres de croquis
composés d’études d’après l’antique, de paysages,
presque tous sites d’Italie, et de calques..’ (unsold);
the Second David sale, Paris, 11 March 1835, part of
lot 16, an album: ‘Douze grands volumes in-folio…
provenant de la vente faite après le décès de ce
célèbre artiste’. (unsold); sale, Paris, 4-5 April 1836,
part of lot 164; Monsieur Chassagnoles, Paris; Jules
David, Paris in 1882; marquis et marquise de Ludre,
Paris; by descent to marquise du Lau d’Allemans
and to comtesse de Chaumont-Quitry, Versailles;
sale, Galerie Charpentier, 15 March 1956, part of lot
11 (not listed by P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, see
Literature; the album purchased intact by Germain
Seligman (L.3863 and his additional stamp: A10
(not in Lugt), the album was then photographed and
dismembered and the drawings sold individually by
Jacques Seligmann and Co., New York, the present
work was included in the catalogue Master Drawings,
1959, lot 10; Mrs Douglas Williams, Long Island;
Private collection, New York.
Literature: A. Cantaloube, ‘Les dessins de Louis
David’, Gazette des Beaux Arts, September 1860,
p.285, note 1 (the album); R. Cantinelli, Jacques-
Louis David, Paris-Brussels, 1930, p.120 (the album);
Calvet-Sérullaz, ‘Un album de croquis inédits de
Jacques-Louis David’, Revue de l’Art, no.5, 1969,
p.68, note 4 (the album); S. A. Nash, The Drawings
of Jacques-Louis David: selected problems, doctoral
thesis, Stanford University, 1973, p.201, note 75A (the
album); A. Sérullaz, David e Roma, exhib. cat., Rome,
Académie de France, Villa Medici, 1981, pp.58, 66
and 70, fig.24; A Sérullaz, David, exhib. cat., Paris,
Grand Palais, 1989, pp.70-71, fig.38; Agnes Mongan,
David to Corot, French Drawings in the Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge-London1996, p.36 (the album);
P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Jacques Louis David 1748-
1825, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan 2002, p.
673 and p.700, no.1079 – (17a.)
A note attached to the preceding lot in the 1826 sale
catalogue of David’s posthumous sale (see Provenance,
op. cit), concluded with the words: ‘These landscapes
and the many others which adorn the sketchbooks,
prove how a painter, so excellent in the historical genre,
is also ready to capture and then render the beauties
of landscape. These perfectly classical drawings are
of the greatest interest ..’ 1 Indeed this sheet, as with
others of its kind, has the air of having been done for
pleasure and illustrates David’s sensitive response to
Rome and its Campagna. Dating from the sojourn of
1774-1780, and employing a painterly use of wash,
like other foreign artists working in the Eternal City,
David demonstrated an interest in capturing the sense
of light, more specifically sunlight and shade and
his landscapes have qualities both of restraint and
luminosity.
David’s individual Roman studies were carefully
transferred into a number of albums, owned by his
widow and then their two sons, before being included
in the studio sale of 1826. The specific album folio
to which this sheet was attached also contained an
unusual black chalk view of a mountainous landscape
and two rough pencil sketches of Roman monuments:
the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Capitoline 2 ; all three of
these latter drawings are now in the collection of the
Pierpont Morgan Library.
Some of the Roman and Campagna views are thought
to be capricci, loosely based on certain monuments
and landmarks. The present drawing, however, has the
appearance of an actual view, probably taken from the
outskirts of Rome or a small town in the region.
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