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Fight between an elephant and rhinoceros

Maker

(artist)
1622-1702

Title

Date of Production

1684

Medium

pen and brown ink, grey wash on laid paper, incised for transfer and framed with brown ink lines, with remnants of black chalk preparation on the verso

Dimensions

Height: 24.5 cm
Width: 33.8 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.2376

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

On 26 January 1684 'The London Gazette' advertised a mezzotint by Francis Barlow of a rhinoceros and an elephant which had newly arrived in London from the East Indies. The claim that they were 'drawn after Life' was false, as is evident from this preparatory drawing which derives from a late sixteenth-century model. In the mezzotint Barlow's rhinoceros bears a strong resemblance to a famous woodcut by Albrecht Durer from 1515. Note the curious drawing of the front left leg, presented simultaneously in two positions.

Provenance

Frederick Pickles; his sale, Sotheby's (London), 11 July 1928; acquired there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Albrecht Dürer and his legacy : the graphic work of a Renaissance artist, British Museum, London, 25/11/2002-23/03/2003

Captured on Paper, Animals in the Prints and Drawings Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 20/06/2002-11/08/2002

Albrecht Durer and his legacy: the graphic work of a Renaissance artist, British Museum, London, 2002-2003 ...More

A Selection of Drawings from The Witt/Courtauld Collections, University of Sussex, Falmer, 1964

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 01/09/1960-01/10/1960

Drawings from the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art, St James's Square, London; York City Art Gallery; Peterborough Art Gallery, 1953

Exhibition of Stuart Drawings, Red Lodge, Bristol, 12/06/1952-12/07/1952

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, American Federation of the Arts, Washington, D.C. and nine cities in the USA, 1951

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949 - 1950

Old Masters from the Witt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 01/01/1943-01/05/1943 ...Less

Literature

Miss Clara and the Celebrity Beast in Art 1500-1860, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, 12 Nov. 2021 - 27 Feb. 2022
pp. 16, 66-67, no. 8a
ill. on p. 67

Flis, Nathan, From the life: the art of Francis Barlow (c.1626-1704), PhD thesis, University of Oxford 2012, available online: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3805d2ad-18b5-4f23-a73d-e720a44107de
p. 151
fig. 95 b

Albrecht Dürer and his legacy : the graphic work of a Renaissance artist, British Museum, London, 2002-2003
cat. no. 249
ill. on p. 289 ...More

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1960
cat. no. 1

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 4

Drawings from the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art, St James's Square, London, York City Art Gallery and Peterborough Art Gallery, 1953
cat. no. 1

Exhibition of Stuart Drawings, Red Lodge, Bristol, 1952
cat. no. 7

Woodward, John O., Tudor and Stuart Drawings, London: Faber and Faber, 1951
pl. 31

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949-50
no. 3

M. T. Ritchie (ed.), English drawings: an anthology, London: Chatto & Windus, 1935
ill. on p. 7

Shaw Sparrow, Walter, 'Francis Barlow. His Country Life and Field Sports', Apollo XIX, January 1934, pp. 25-29
p. 28
ill. on p. 29 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, right centre: foolscap; Countermark: Recto, left centre: single-line “M” or “W”[?] (not found in Heawood, perhaps most similar to 2017 - Amsterdam 1683).

Inscription: Recto: upper right, pen and brown ink, signed and dated by the artist: "F Barlow 1684".

Collector's mark: none.

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