Hubert François Gravelot

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Hubert François Gravelot
1699-1773
Antiquities of Egypt
1738-1740
Pen and black ink over graphite and red chalk, on paper; incised with the stylus.
5 5/16 x 3 1/16 inches (134 x 78 mm)
Gift of John F. Fleming.
1968.15:18
Notes: 

Gravelot's design is preparatory for an engraved frontispiece to Volume I of Charles Rollin's “The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, and Persians..." (London, 1738-40). The drawing shows a seated male figure surrounded by Egyptian antiquities, including mummy cases, figurines, and a canopus jar; another figure stands before him, holding up a tablet, while pyramids, an obelisk, and a worshipper making an offering to the statue of a bull fill the background. The engraving was executed by Jacques Philippe Le Bas (1707-1783) and bears the date October 16, 1738.

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.
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.

Bibliography: 

Kraemer, Ruth S. "Drawings by Gravelot in the Morgan Library." Master drawings, XX (Spring 1982), p. 6, no. 1; reproduced plate 1a.

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