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Three trees in a wood

Maker

(artist)
1736-1810

Title

Date of Production

1799

Medium

graphite, pen and grey and black ink, grey wash, white bodycolour, on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines, now laid down on Japanese tissue

Dimensions

Height: 41.8 cm
Width: 29.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3620

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

The Lyon-based de Boissieu was passionate about drawing from nature, although many of his landscapes skilfully combine first-hand observation with motifs from seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art. This drawing may owe its inspiration in part to Rembrandt’s renowned etching 'The Three Trees', but the dramatic fall of light on the trunks, as well as his endowing three trees of three different ages with an almost human quality, are very much de Boissieu’s own.

Provenance

François Alziari, Baron de Malaussena (mid-19th century), L.1887; Rudolf Philip Goldschmidt, Berlin (ca. 1840-1914), L.2926; his sale, Prestel (Frankfurt), 4 -5 October 1917, lot 50; Roland, Browse & Delbanco (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Regarding Trees, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 18/06/2016-25/09/2016

French Drawings: XVI-XIX Centuries, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 04/07/1991-06/10/1991

France in the eighteenth century, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 06/01/1968-03/03/1968 ...More

Landscape in French Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1949-1950 ...Less

Literature

French Drawings: XVI-XIX Centuries, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1991
no. 2, p. 12
ill. on p. 13

France in the eighteenth century, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1967-1968
cat. no. 29

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: centre: large shield with bend, topped by a diamond, below a bunch of grapes with a long, hooked stem (not found in Churchill, Heawood or Piccard).

Collector's mark: Recto: lower right corner, stamped in black ink: François Alziari, Baron de Malaussena (L.1887). Verso: lower left corner, stamped in black ink: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b); lower left, stamped in black ink: Rudolf Philip Goldschmidt (L.2926).

Inscription: Recto: lower left corner, grey ink, signed and dated by the artist with his monogram: "DB. 1799."; lower right corner, black ink: "540". Verso (obscured by Japanese tissue): left centre, graphite: "64 x 48"; lower right, graphite: "43"; lower left corner, graphite: "871 300".

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