Hubert François Gravelot

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Gravelot and Others Album

Various media, including pen and black and brown ink, gray and brown wash, graphite, watercolor, black and red chalk, and one etching, on paper.

12 x 7 3/8 inches (305 x 186 mm)

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

2006.28

Notes:

This album contains eighty drawings and one print by various eighteenth-century artists, including twenty-two sketches by Hubert Francois Gravelot, twelve studies by Charles Nicolas Cochin, and examples by their pupils and contemporaries Jean Michel Moreau le Jeune, Claude Bornet, Charles Eisen, Victor Jean Nicolle, F.A.M. Lemoine, Christoph Huet, Simon Charles Miger, Charles Monnet, Jean Duplessi-Bertaux, Jean Philippe Sarazin, and Luc Vincent Thiery de Sainte-Colombe.
All drawings are inlaid or glued on the album leaf, except four preparatory studies by Gravelot for the "Almanach utile et agréable de la loterie de l'Ecole royale militaire pour l'année 1758 et 1760...", drawn directly on pages 2 and 3. All pages are numbered in graphite, at upper right corner, 1 to 51. There is one blank page, at no. 19. The drawings are largely for book illustrations and date between 1759 and 1791.
Several of the drawings in the album were included by Fairfax Murray in his collection catalogue. Those sheets which he reproduced bear accompanying accession numbers [III, 95, 96, 97 (Gravelot); III, 111 (Eisen); III, 121 (anonymous, French school); and III, 122 (Miger)].

Inscription:

J.P. Morgan bookplate; inscribed in graphite on inside of cover, at upper center, "Livre de Croquis de Gravelot"; at right, in pen and black ink, "nous devons aller a Moriert pres (?) / la forest de Crecy"; inscribed in graphite on first page, at upper left, "80 drawings and 1 print (Fairfax Murray)"; below, at left, "Gravelot & others", and "French"; below, "Recueil de desseins (79)", crossed out, "80" written above; below, "Designs for L'almanach de la loterie...Boccaccio etc". Inside back cover contains additional inscriptions and numerical calculations.

Provenance:

Hippolyte Destailleur (1822-1893), Paris (Lugt 740); his sale, Paris, 26-27 May 1893, no. 97; Charles Fairfax Murray, London; from whom purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1910 (no mark; see Lugt 1509).

Associated names:

Gravelot, Hubert François, 1699-1773, artist.
Cochin, Charles Nicolas, 1715-1790, artist.
Moreau, Jean Michel, 1741-1814, artist.
Bornet, Claude, 1733-1804, artist.
Destailleur, Hippolyte Alexandre Gabriel Walter, 1822-1893, 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, nos. 95, 96, 97 (all drawings by Gravelot), 111 (Eisen), 121 (anonymous, French school), and 122 (Miger) repr.
Denison, Cara D. French Drawings, 1550-1825. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, no. 112 (Gravelot)

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