by-nc

Studies for a Virgin and Child

Maker

(artist)
1612-1648

Title

Studies for a Virgin and Child

Date of Production

1600 - 1699

Medium

pen and ink (brown) on laid paper, laid down on a Mariette mount

Dimensions

Height: 26.3 cm
Width: 19.7 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1641

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords







Label Text

This drawing is framed in a distinctive blue mount which belonged to the famed French collector Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694–1774). He owned over 9,000 drawings, most in his characteristic mounts, giving rise to the description of the colour as ‘Mariette blue’. These custom-made mats provided a unified and refined system of display, forcing the viewer to focus on the image at the centre. A Mariette mount came to denote a drawing of significance and was often imitated by later collectors.

Provenance

Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1616-1693) [according to Crozat's catalogue]; Lorenzo Pasinelli (1629-1700) [according to Crozat's catalogue]; Pierre Crozat, Paris (1665-1740), L.3612 (at lower right); his estate sale, Mariette (Paris), 10 April - 13 May 1741, lot 600 (1 of 12 drawings by Cantarini); purchased there by Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris (1694-1774), L.2097 (48 livres for the lot); his estate sale, Basan (Paris), 15 November 1775 - 30 January 1776, lot 283 (part of 'six feuilles d'etudes diverses a la plume'); purchased there by Charles-Philippe Campion, Abbé de Tersan (1736-1819); possibly Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (c. 1840-c. 1892); his sale, 9-13 December 1889, lot 1045 ('CANTARINI (IL PESARESE). Studies of Virgins; from the Mariette &c. Collection, pen and ink'); Prince Wladimir Nikolaevitch Argoutinsky-Dolgoroukoff, Paris (1875-1941), L.2602d (at lower left); his sale, Sotheby's (London), 4 July 1923, lot 4; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, for £9.5; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawn to Blue: Artists' use of Blue Paper, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 04/10/2024-26/01/2025

Italian Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries from the Witt
Collection
, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/03/1971-01/04/1971

Italian Old Master drawings. Witt Collection, Courtauld Gallery, The National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington, 1970 ...More

Master Drawings of the 17th century from the Witt Collection, Art Gallery of South Australia, Festival Exhibitions, Adelaide, 1968 ...Less

Literature

Rosenberg, Paul, Les dessins de la Collection Mariette: écoles italienne et espagnole. 4 vols, Paris 2019
vol. I, no. I 300 on p. 217
ill. p. 217
photocopy in file

Py, Bernadette, Les dessins italiens de Pierre Crozat (1665-1740). L'oeil de Mariette, http://mini-site.louvre.fr/trimestriel/2015/Catalogue_Crozat
p. 358 and note 7

Mancigotti, Marco, Simone Cantarini, il pesarese, Pesaro, 1975
pp. 242, 275
fig. 177
no comments on the drawing ...More

Italian Old Master drawings. Witt Collection, Courtauld Gallery, The National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington, 1970
cat. no. 41

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 66 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none evident via transmitted light though difficult to see through secondary support.

Collector's mark: Recto: lower right, written in brown: Pierre Crozat (L.3612).

Inscription: 107 and "Cantarini" [the name written before Crozat's ownership as it forced his number beyond the lower right corner where it usually sits]

Inscription: SIMON / CANTARINI / PISAURIENSIS //

Inscription: B.

Inscription: NM6 [?]

Inscription: 29

Inscription: r[...]g-- F[...]

Inscription: x

Inscription: 883-3

Inscription: 107

Inscription: Colls. Mariette / ? W.A.D / See drawing in Besancon. Sketches for Madonna & Child / Pr //

Inscription: H-283 du Catalog Mariette

Inscription: P.

Inscription: d'la[...]

Collector's mark: collector's mark of Pierre-Jean Mariette (L.2097)

Collector's mark: collector's mark of Prince Wladimir Nikolaevitch Argoutinsky-Dolgoroukoff (L.2602d)

Collector's mark: collector's mark of Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b)

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