Charles Nicolas Cochin

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Charles Nicolas Cochin

1715-1790

The Archangel Michael Dispersing with His Lance the Darkness and the Evil Spirits

Black chalk on gray paper; squared in black and red chalk for transfer.

Full sheet: 4 x 6 1/4 inches (102 x 158 mm); design area: 2 11/16 x 5 9/16 inches (68 x 141 mm)

Purchase.

1989.41:10

Notes:

Watermark: unidentified fragment of letters.
This sheet belongs to an ensemble of eighteen preparatory sketches (seven for vignettes and eleven for headpieces) for illustrations and two prints after Cochin for an 1784-85 edition of Torquato Tasso's "La Gerusalemme Liberata" published in Paris by François Ambroise Didot. These illustrations were commissioned by Monsieur, the Comte de Provence and the brother of Louis XVI who later reigned as Louis XVIII (1755-1824). The eighteen drawings were part of an album of 102 drawings broken up and sold in several lots by Sotheby's, London, in 1970. The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the headpiece to Canto IX, Ott. 58. The corresponding finished drawing for this headpiece is in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library and is signed and dated by the artist.

Inscription:

Inscribed in pen and brown ink, "CANTO IX. ott. 58 / au dessin 1er - Eclairé d'en haut, du milieu, au dessin, a faire de droitte / a gauche". Collector's mark of the Comte Nicholas A. Koucheleff-Bezborodko stamped in blue at lower right corner (Lugt 1629).

Provenance:

Comte Nicolas A. Koucheleff-Bezborodko, St. Petersburg (Lugt 1629); Comte J.P. van Suchtelen, general and Russian diplomat (Lugt 2332; his mark only on the first page of the album of 102 drawings sold at Sotheby's in 1970); his sale, Paris, 4 June 1862; Cambray and Portalis Collections; Eugène von Wasserman, Brussels; his sale, Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 24-27 October and 3-5 November 1921, pp. 153-4, no. 954; General Jacques Willems, Brussels; his sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 April 1970, lots 143 and 144; H. Shickman Gallery; Adolphe Stein, Paris; Christian Humann; his sale, New York, Sotheby's, 21 January 1983, no. 75 (nine drawings and two prints); Spencer A. Samuels & Company, Ltd., New York.

Associated names:

Tasso, Torquato, 1544-1595. Gerusalemme liberata.
Koucheleff-Bezborodko, Nicolas A., Comte, 1834-1862, former owner.
Suchtelen, J. P. van, Comte, 1751-1836, former owner.
Wasserman, Eugène von, former owner.
Willems, Jacques, 1870-1957, former owner.
Stein, Adolphe, former owner.

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Cochin, Charles Nicolas

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