Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Draftsman Sketching at Villa Madama

Hubert Robert
1733-1808

Draftsman Sketching at Villa Madama

ca. 1760
18 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches (470 x 343 mm)
Red chalk.
2017.221

Thaw Collection.

Notes
Watermark: none visible through lining.
Drawing from the model and making drawn copies from other works of art were fundamental to academic pedagogy. Robert's drawing shows a fully formed pensionnaire diligently copying Domenichino's fresco of the Flagellation of St. Andrew (1608-9) in the oratory of the church of S. Gregorio al Celio in Rome. The young man has created a makeshift studio from two chairs and a prie-dieu, which enable him to balance the large portfolio on his knees. This draftsman likely represents one of the pensionnaires sent to study at the French Academy in Rome, a course of continuing instruction that could last for as long as four years. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Inscriptions/Markings
Signed and inscribed at lower right in pen and black ink, "villa madama Robert R...". Paper of drawing has been folded in half, leaving a horizontal crease at the center.
Associated names
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
Bibliography
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 336, repr.
Denison, Cara D. et al. The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and New Acquisitions. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994, no. 28.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department