Charles Nicolas Cochin

Watermark: PRO PATRIA, (similar to Churchill 141). Watermark, beta radiograph. Rampant lion, fence, Britannica, Pro Patria. 218362wm_1989_41_13_WM_beta.jpg
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 preparatory for the headpiece to Canto XV, Ott. 52. The corresponding finished drawing is in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, and is signed and dated by the artist. The engraving, in the opposite direction, was executed by Jean Dambrun (c. 1741-after 1814), and precedes p. 139 of Volume II of the second edition of 1785-186, a copy of which is in the Gordon Ray Collection (formerly Roederer Collection) at the Morgan Library. A comparison of the Morgan's drawing with the print shows that an alligator was added at the lower right in the engraving where only the coiled body of a large snake was present in the sketch.