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Triumph of Neptune

Maker

Bernard (Toro) Turreau (artist)
1672-1731

Title

Triumph of Neptune

Date of Production

(circa) 1728

Medium

black chalk, pen and grey ink, grey wash on laid paper, laid down

Dimensions

Height: 14.3 cm
Width: 27.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.4264

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

A base line in black chalk establishes a foundation for this extremely refined drawing by the ornament carver Bernard Toro. The movement of the procession is conveyed by the prancing sea-horses and the energetic flight of infants bearing bull rushes and watering urns to which the horses seem to react. Ornament and figure combine in the real and carved putti at either side of Neptune’s knee and in the putto at the head of the cavalcade, whose left leg becomes leaf in a C-scroll that terminates the design. The subtlety of line, the careful rendering of finely graded relief by wash, and the suggestion of narrative in the gestures and expressions of the figures together repay careful and sustained looking. They raise the possibility that this design was intended for the amateur of drawings rather than for a craftsman.

Provenance

probably André-Denis Bérard, Paris (1806-1873); Galerie de Bayser (Paris); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Ornament by Design, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 23/04/2016-12/06/2016

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

La peinture en Provence au XVIIe siècle, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, 1978 ...More

A selection of drawings from the Witt collection: French drawings c. 1600-c. 1800, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1962

French Master Drawings, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 1962

French Masters - Rococo to Romanticism, UCLA, Los Angeles, 1961 ...Less

Literature

French Drawings: XVI-XIX Centuries, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1991
no. 45, p. 100
ill. on p. 101

Volle, Nathalie, ‘Toro: dessins d’ornements’ in ‘Études de la Revue du Louvre et des Musées de la France, I, La Donation Suzanne et Henri Baderou au Musée de Rouen’, Paris 1980
p. 60

French drawings of the 17th and 18th centuries in North American Collections, Toronto, Ottawa, San Francisco, New York, 1972
under no. 138

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Collector's mark: Verso (backing sheet): lower left corner, stamped in black ink: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

Inscription: Verso (backing sheet): centre, graphite: “34”; right lower edge, graphite: “#5”; lower right, graphite: “open”; lower left edge, graphite: “4264 / Toro – Le Triomphe de Neptune //”; lower right edge, graphite: “Colln Bérard.”.

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