Attributed to Nicolas Robert
1614-1684
An Amaryllis and Two Tulips
11 x 7 7/8 inches (280 x 200 mm)
Pen and black ink over black chalk; double ruled border in pen and brown ink.
2003.9
Gift of Charles Ryskamp in memory of Baroness Liliane de Rothschild.
Notes
Robert was the most famous natural history artist of the seventeenth century. This sheet was sold, along with two others in pen and ink, as a preliminary design by Robert for his volume of engravings after his own flower designs, "Variae ac Multiformes Florum Species: Diverses Fleurs," published in Paris in 1660. None of the three drawings corresponds exactly to any of Robert's printed plates. While the linear style is akin to a few examples of Robert's drawings on vellum in his sketchbooks (Austrian National Library) the sheet it is not entirely convincing as a study by the artist.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed on verso at lower left, in black chalk, "9 [paraphe]"; at lower center, in pencil, "Or. Zeichg v. Nicolas Robert"; at lower right, in pencil, "links unter / nummeriert: 9 / und Signatur?"; at upper left, in pencil, "18 x 26"; at upper right, in pencil, "18.6 x 26".
Associated names
Hobhouse, Niall, former owner.
Ryskamp, Charles, former owner.
Ryskamp, Charles, former owner.
Bibliography
The World Observed: Five Centuries of Drawings from the Collection of Charles Ryskamp. New York: The Pierpont Morgan Library, 2000, no. 19, repr.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
Department