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Hubert François Gravelot
1699-1773
Allegory of Geometry(?)
Pen and black ink and wash, with white and red chalk for toning, on tan paper; incised with the stylus.
5 5/16 x 3 5/8 inches (135 x 92 mm)
Gift of John F. Fleming.
1968.15:31
Notes:
Gravelot's design probably was intended to serve as a vignette or tailpiece illustration to a work on geometry or philosophy. A rocaille cartouche contains a female figure who holds a compass to the bust of a man mounted on a pyramid and supports a tablet bearing a triangle and circle with her left hand.
Provenance:
Marie-Joseph-Colombe-Henri-Denis Beccaria de Pavie, Marquis de Fourquevaux (1762-1841), Fourquevaux, France; Emmanuel Bocher (1835-1919), Paris; Léon Olry-Roederer (1869-1932), Paris; A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952), Philadelphia; John Fleming (1910-1987), New York.
Associated names:
Fourquevaux, Joseph de Beccarie de Pavie, marquis de, 1762-1841, former owner.
Bocher, Emmanuel, 1835-1919, former owner.
Olry-Roederer, Léon, 1869-1932, former owner.
Rosenbach, A. S. W. (Abraham Simon Wolf), 1876-1952, former owner.
Fleming, John F. (John Francis), 1910-1987, former owner.
Bibliography:
Kraemer, Ruth S. "Drawings by Gravelot in the Morgan Library." Master drawings, XX (Spring 1982), p. 14, no. 54, reproduced plate 18b.
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