Hubert François Gravelot

This design is one of four preparatory drawings by Gravelot in the Morgan's collection intended for an engraved frontispiece executed by Jean Charles Le Vasseur for Henri Panckoucke's "Lettre de don Carlos à Elisabeth" (Paris : Panckoucke et Veuve Duchesne, 1768). Don Carlos is shown seated at a table at left as the guards enter at right to take him to his execution; he holds a miniature portrait in one hand while with the other he is engaged in writing a letter with a quill. A preliminary sketch of the seated figure appears, inverted, in the upper half of the drawing. The scene is captioned in pen, "Mon heure est arrivée, on me mene a la mort" and is signed by the artist, "H. Gravelot inven." Of the four studies, two (1968.15:3-4) are closer to Le Vasseur's engraving and show Don Carlos seated at a table while he is seen standing in the other two sketches (1968.15:1-2). This suggests that the latter two may represent an earlier idea for this composition.