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Wooded landscape with stream and oxcart on road

Maker

(artist)
1744-1767

Title

Date of Production

1700 - 1799

Medium

black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines

Dimensions

Height: 19.5 cm
Width: 27.7 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.65

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

Taking the notion of ideal nature as its starting point, this rustic landscape was most likely not done directly in front of the motif. Instead, working from the imagination, the Dresden artist Wagner created a pastoral fantasy by introducing elements of the everyday, such as the oxcart at right, into a more generalised
classical landscape. The skilful interplay of grey and brown washes gives an impression of soft light across the sheet. Wagner’s stylised rendering of foliage, which whirls and coils in a lively, almost calligraphic manner, imbues this tranquil scene with vitality and movement.

Provenance

Henry Stephen Olivier, Potterne Manor, Wiltshire (1795-1864), L.1373; F.R. Meatyard (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d. (£1.15); Witt Bequest 1952 Olivier had an estate sale in 1948 but the low accession number means this drawing was likely acquired in the 1920s or early 1930s by Witt from Meatyard.

Exhibition History

A Dialogue with Nature: Romantic Landscapes from Britain and Germany, The Morgan Library, New York, 30/05/2014-07/09/2014

A Dialogue with Nature: Romantic Landscapes from Britain and Germany, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 30/01/2014-27/04/2014

Inscriptions

Watermark: centre: “ITM” or “MTI” (not found in Heawood).

Inscription: Recto: upper left corner, graphite: “31”. Verso: upper left, graphite: “Wagner”; upper right corner, graphite: “7/4”; lower right, graphite: “12” and below that “21-”; lower right of centre edge, graphite: “ms”. Witt mount (removed but mounted under the drawing), Recto: lower right, graphite: “#8 / Johann Georg Wagner / German 1744-1766 / Coll. M.A. Oliver"; lower left corner, graphite; “c / 65"; lower right edge, graphite, unclear: “O[...]”.

Collector's mark: Recto: lower left corner, stamped in black ink: Henry Stephen Olivier (L.1373).

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