Célestin Nanteuil
1813-1873
Drawing for Victor Hugo's "Lucrèce Borgia "
ca. 1833
8 x 5 15/16 inches (203 x 151 mm)
Pen-and-ink, wash, and graphite with traces of gouache and China white, on paper.
2003.6
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Notes
Drawing by Nanteuil intended to illustrate act 3, scene ii of Victor Hugo's play Lucrèce Borgia, published in Paris in 1833; the volume appeared with an etched frontispiece after Nanteuil, but this, his second design for Hugo's play, was never published. Cf. Ray.
Summary
Drawing illustrates the banquet scene from act 3, scene ii of Hugo's "Lucrèce Borgia", set in Negroni Palace in Ferrara, where Lucrecia Borgia, accompanied by a band of hooded penitents, appears before the assembled noblemen to inform them that they have all been poisoned.
Associated names
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Bibliography
Reproduced in: The art of the French illustrated book, 1700 to 1914 / Gordon N. Ray. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1982, p. 290.
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Classification
Century Drawings
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