Charles Nicolas Cochin

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Charles Nicolas Cochin

1715-1790

The Muse of Epic Poetry Dictating to Tasso and Giving Him a Scroll with the Names of the Warriors

Black chalk on gray paper; squared in black chalk for transfer.

Full sheet: 4 9/16 x 6 inches (116 x 157 mm); design area: 2 1/2 x 5 inches (63 x 127 mm)

Purchase.

1989.41:16

Notes:

Watermark: Fragment, flat pedestal with horse, similar to Churchill 192. Watermark, beta radiograph. platform, flur de lis, horse. 218375wm_1989_41_16_WM_beta.jpg
This sheet belongs to an ensemble of eighteen preparatory sketches (seven for vignettes and eleven for headpieces) for illustrations and two prints after Cochin for an 1784-85 edition of Torquato Tasso's "La Gerusalemme Liberata" published in Paris by François Ambroise Didot. These illustrations were commissioned by Monsieur, the Comte de Provence and the brother of Louis XVI who later reigned as Louis XVIII (1755-1824). The eighteen drawings were part of an album of 102 drawings broken up and sold in several lots by Sotheby's, London, in 1970. The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the headpiece to Canto XVII, Ott. 33. The corresponding finished drawing is in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, and is signed and dated by the artist.

Inscription:

Inscribed in pen and brown ink, above the design, "3 / Canto XVII. Ott. 33 / ott. 3 / De gauche a droitte". The scrolls next to the Muse of Epic Poetry are inscribed with the names of the famous epic poems of the antique: "ENEIDE, ILLIADE, ODISSEE". Collector's mark of the Comte Nicholas A. Koucheleff-Bezborodko stamped in blue at lower right corner (Lugt 1629).

Provenance:

Comte Nicolas A. Koucheleff-Bezborodko, St. Petersburg (Lugt 1629); Comte J.P. van Suchtelen, general and Russian diplomat (Lugt 2332; his mark only on the first page of the album of 102 drawings sold at Sotheby's in 1970); his sale, Paris, 4 June 1862; Cambray and Portalis Collections; Eugène von Wasserman, Brussels; his sale, Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 24-27 October and 3-5 November 1921, pp. 153-4, no. 954; General Jacques Willems, Brussels; his sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 April 1970, lots 143 and 144; H. Shickman Gallery; Adolphe Stein, Paris; Christian Humann; his sale, New York, Sotheby's, 21 January 1983, no. 75 (nine drawings and two prints); Spencer A. Samuels & Company, Ltd., New York.

Associated names:

Tasso, Torquato, 1544-1595. Gerusalemme liberata.
Koucheleff-Bezborodko, Nicolas A., Comte, 1834-1862, former owner.
Suchtelen, J. P. van, Comte, 1751-1836, former owner.
Wasserman, Eugène von, former owner.
Willems, Jacques, 1870-1957, former owner.
Stein, Adolphe, former owner.

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Cochin, Charles Nicolas

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