Figures disporting amidst Classical Ruins
French School
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
c. 1770 - c. 1780
Materials
Pen and ink on paper
Measurements
210 x 163 mm
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 267150
Summary
Pen and ink and sepia wash drawing on paper, Figures disporting amidst Classical Ruins, French School, late 18th century. Signed and dated (erroneously at a later date) bottom centre: 1799 J.V.B. Alastair Laing has noted that: 'There is a discrepancy between the date inscribed on this drawing - 1799 - and its style, which is that of two or three decades earlier. The motifs are those of Panini or Hubert Robert, but treated more playfully, and there is a staccato quality to the draughtsmanship, notably of the figures, which may indicate one of the students of architecture at the French Academy in Rome. The initials are those of Jean-Victor Bertin (1767-1842); however, not only did he not make the journey to Italy until 1806 to 1812, but since 1793 he had been drawing, painting, and exhibiting landscapes rather than architectural capriccios such as this, and (as Marianne Roland Michel pointed out in 1984), nothing of his relates in style to this, which would seem more probably the work of a student of architecture, or architectural painter or draughtsman. The inscribed date and initials may well be misleading.' (Ford 1998, p. 194, RBF191).
Provenance
William F. Webb (1829 - 1899) and his daughter Geraldine, Lady Chermside and by descent to Richard Gatty (1909 - 1975) of Pepper Arden, Northallerton, Yorks.; his sale, Sotheby's,18 March 1959 [Lot 53]; purchased by Colnaghi;s on behalf of Brinsley Ford and by descent to Augustine Ford. Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from Augustine Ford and allocated to the National Trust for Osterley, 2023.
Makers and roles
French School, artist Jean Victor Bertin (Paris 1767 - Paris 1842) , artist
References
Ford 1998 Brinsley Ford, John Ingamells, Francis Russell, John Christian, Nicholas Penny, Jennifer Montagu, Howard Coutts, Timothy Wilson & Dudley Dodd, The Ford Collection – II, Walpole Society, Vol. 60, 1998, pp. 91-376, RBF191 Garnett 2015: Oliver Garnett, At Home with Art Treasures from the Ford Collection at Basildon Park, National Trust, 2015, p. 25