Fra Bartolomeo

Zoom image

Download image:

246981v_0001.jpg

Fra Bartolomeo

1472-1517

Barren Pollarded Mulberry and Small Thorn Trees. Verso: Barren Tree

ca. 1495-1508

Pen and brown ink.

11 7/16 x 8 1/2 inches (285 x 215 mm)

Thaw Collection.

2017.2

Zoom image

Download verso image:

246981v_0002.jpg

Notes:

Watermark: none.
Disarming in its simplicity, this study of a wintry tree rendered with swift, delicate penstrokes and stippling reveals Fra Bartolommeo's fascination with nature. Unlike most artists of his era, Fra Bartolommeo (so called because of his years spent as a friar in the Dominican order) recorded the landscapes that he saw during his travels, apparently making the drawings outdoors rather than in the studio. Like the majority of his landscape drawings, the present sheet comes from a disbound sketchbook, the drawings in which seem to have been made for pleasure rather than as studies for specific paintings. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"

Provenance:

Probably from a large group of drawings left by the artist to Fra Paolino da Pistoia (ca. 1490-1547); possibly bequeathed by Fra Paolino to Suor Plautilla Nelli (1523-1588) at the convent of Santa Caterina de Siena, Florence; acquired by Cavaliere Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri (1676-1742) prior to or in 1730; William Kent, London by whom sold in the mid-eighteenth century to private collection, Great Britain; from where sold in 1925 to private collection, Ireland (sale, Drawings of Landscapes and Trees by Fra Bartolomeo, London, Sotheby's, 20 November 1957, lot 39; bought by Hans M. Calmann (1899-1982), London; Private collector, Switzerland; from whom purchased by Eugene V. and Claire E. Thaw, New York and Santa Fe.

Associated names:

Paolino, fra, 1488-1547, former owner.
Nelli, Plautilla, suor, 1523-1588, former owner.
Gabburri, Francesco Maria Niccolò, 1676-1742, former owner.
Kent, William, 1685-1748, former owner.
Calmann, Hans M., 1899-1982, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.

Bibliography:

Gronau 1957, lot 39; New York 1992; New York 1994-95, no. 4; London 1996-97, no. 3; New York and Williamstown 2017-18, 34-35.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 6, repr.
Denison, Cara D. et al. The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and New Acquisitions. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994, no. 4.

Catalog link:

See more information »

Artist page:

School:

Century:

Classification:

Exhibitions:

Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection

Department:

Drawings and Prints