Claude Lorrain

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Claude Lorrain
1600-1682
Temple at Tivoli. Verso: Outline of the Temple at Tivoli drawn in reverse
1630-35
Pen and brown ink, gray and brown wash on paper; verso: pen and brown ink.
4 5/8 x 4 inches (118 x 102 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
III, 78

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Watermark: none.
This sketch depicts a first century BC Roman temple in Tivoli, known as the Temple of Vesta, perched on the acropolis above the falls of the Aniene river, which flows into the Tiber. The round temple was a favorite motif of the artist, who made numerous drawings of it and incorporated its round, ruined form set in rocky heights in a number of paintings. In the painted versions, however, the temple appears as it might have in classical antiquity, without the accretion of modern structures seen in this closely observed study. A painting attributed to a follower of Claude closely features the same temple and surrounding buildings (Christie's, South Kensington, 31 October 2001, lot 169).
A second sheet that passed through Richardson's collection and is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, is inscribed “Vignia di Papa Giulio,” apparently in the same hand as the present sheet. Roethlisberger expressed reservations about the handling of the architecture, but felt the manner in which the trees are executed confirmed the attribution to Claude.

Inscription: 

Inscribed in a later hand at upper left, in pen and brown ink, "Veduto di Tivoli"; at lower left, "CG" (possibly a monogram, according to Roethlisberger; see also 2017.150).

Provenance: 
Jonathan Richardson, Sr. (1667-1745), London (Lugt 2183); his sale, London, Mr. Cock, 22 January 1746-8 February 1747 (to Bouverie); John Bouverie (c. 1723-1750), Betchworth, Surrey (Lugt 325); his sister Anne Bouverie (d. 1757), Betchworth; her husband, John Hervey (d. 1764), Betchworth; his son Christopher Hervey (d. 1786), London and Betchworth; his spinster aunt, Miss Elizabeth Bouverie (d. 1798), Teston, Kent; bequeathed by her to her childhood friend's husband, Sir Charles Middleton, later 1st Baron Barham (1726-1813), Teston; his son-in-law, Sir Gerard Noel, 2nd Baron Barham (1759-1838); his son, Charles Noel, 3rd Baron Barham and later 1st Earl of Gainsborough (1781-1866), Exton Park, Oakham; his anonymous ["Bouverie"] sale, London, Christie's, 20 July 1859, lot 104; Ch. S. Bale (according to Mme. Mark Pattison; see Lugt 640-641); possibly his sale, London, Christie's, May 1881; Reverend Henry Wellesley (1794-1866), Oxford (see Lugt 1394); his sale, 1866, lot 308 (according to Marcel Roethlisberger); V. W. Newman, city (according to Pattison; see Lugt 2540); Frederick Leighton (1830-1896), 1st Baron Leighton, London (according to Pattison; see Lugt S. 1741a); his sale, London, Christie's, 11, 13, and 14 July, 1896; Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.
Associated names: 

Richardson, Jonathan, 1665-1745, former owner.
Bouverie, Edward, 1767-1858, former owner.
Bale, Charles Sackville, 1791-1880, former owner.
Wellesley, Henry, 1791-1866, former owner.
Newman, V. W., former owner.
Leighton of Stretton, Frederic Leighton, Baron, 1830-1896, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 78.
Roethlisberger, Marcel, Claude Lorrain. The Drawings, 1968, no. 39.

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