Gaspard Dughet

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Gaspard Dughet
1615-1675
Landscape with Three Trees at the Side of the Road
ca. 1650
Pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, on light brown paper; squared in black chalk.
10 1/2 x 15 9/16 inches (266 x 395 mm)
Purchased as the gift of the Fellows.
1954.13
Notes: 

Watermark: none.
Dughet became Poussin's brother-in-law and apprentice in 1631, and it was the master who encouraged him to draw from nature and explore the countryside surrounding Rome. This painterly sheet was probably executed around 1650, when Dughet was completing a major cycle of landscape frescoes in the church of S. Martino ai Monti that would bring him acclaim. A mountain road, wending downhill and dappled with sunlight, is a configuration that occurs elsewhere in his work. Although the gridlines suggest the scene was meant to be transferred to another surface, there is no known corresponding fresco or painting. Some scholars have expressed doubts about the attribution of this sheet to Dughet, who is a notoriously difficult draftsman to identify.

Provenance: 
John Thane (1748-1818), London (Lugt 1544, 2393); Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950), London (Lugt S. 2274a); P. & D. Colnaghi and Co., London.
Associated names: 

Thane, John, 1748-1818, former owner.
Reitlinger, Henry Scipio, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Adams, Frederick B., Jr. Sixth Annual Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1955, p. 71-72.
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 161.
Denison, Cara D. French Drawings, 1550-1825. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, no. 26.
Denison, Cara D. French Master Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1993, no. 26, repr.

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