Hubert François Gravelot

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Hubert François Gravelot
1699-1773
Scene of Sorcery
ca. 1770
Pen and black ink, with touches of black and white chalk, on paper; lightly incised with the stylus.
7 x 5 1/8 inches (177 x 130 mm)
Gift of John F. Fleming.
1968.15:40
Provenance: 
Marie-Joseph-Colombe-Henri-Denis Beccaria de Pavie, Marquis de Fourquevaux (1762-1841), Fourquevaux, France; Emmanuel Bocher (1835-1919), Paris; Léon Olry-Roederer (1869-1932), Paris; A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952), Philadelphia; John Fleming (1910-1987), New York.
Bibliography: 

Kraemer, Ruth S. "Drawings by Gravelot in the Morgan Library." Master drawings, XX (Spring 1982), p. 12, no. 38; reproduced plate 12.

Notes: 

Gravelot's design is preparatory for an engraved frontispiece to the “Satyrae” in a 1770 English edition of Horace's works (“Opera of Horace”, Birmingham : John Baskerville, 1770; p. 187). The sketch illustrates a scene from Book I, 8th Satire, verses 23-50, in which the witches Canidia and Sagana summon the spirits of the dead by pouring the blood of a black lamb into a trench in front of a statue of Priapus. The figure of Priapus is shown holding a scythe, and two small additional figures kneel in an attitude of prayer at right.

Associated names: 

Fourquevaux, Joseph de Beccarie de Pavie, marquis de, 1762-1841, former owner.
Bocher, Emmanuel, 1835-1919, former owner.
Olry-Roederer, Léon, 1869-1932, former owner.
Rosenbach, A. S. W. (Abraham Simon Wolf), 1876-1952, former owner.
Fleming, John F. (John Francis), 1910-1987, former owner.

Catalog link: 
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Artist page: 
Gravelot, Hubert François
School: 
French
Century: 
18th century
Classification: 
Drawing
Department: 
Drawings and Prints