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Study for 'The Arrival of Aeneas at Pallanteum'

Maker

(artist)
1604-1682

Title

Date of Production

(probably c.) 1673

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, brown wash and white bodycolour on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines and with ruled lines in graphite added on top by the artist; remnants of adhesive on the verso attest to its having been mounted in an album

Dimensions

Height: 18.3 cm
Width: 25.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1978.PG.215

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This drawing is part of a group of at least nine preliminary sketches for The Arrival of Aeneas at Pallanteum, an episode from Virgil’s Aeneid that Claude painted in 1675 for Don Gasparo Altieri (now at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire). After traveling in the Mediterranean, the Trojan leader Aeneas reached Pallanteum, the site on the river Tiber where his descendants Romulus and Remus would one day found Rome.

The Courtauld’s sheet almost certainly represents Claude’s first idea for the picture, as its composition is simpler than that of the final work and does not include figures. The inscriptions in the artist’s hand refer to places mentioned in the poem in connection with the episode, such as the Aventine Hill and the ancient towns of Janiculum and Saturnia.

Provenance

part of the so-called 'Wildenstein album' first owned by Prince Livio Odescalchi (1653-1713) [documented in inventory taken at his death in 1713]; by descent to Maria Odescalchi, Rome (b. 1930) and her husband Count Donato Sanminiatelli (1929-1979) [as per Calmann's 1976 memoir]; eight sheets cut out of the album and purchased from them by Hans M. Calmann (1899-1982), 1957; purchased from him by Colnaghi (London), 24 October 1958; purchased there by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978), 24 October 1958 (£1,500); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

In Marcel Röthlsiberger, 'Claude Lorrain: The Wildenstein Album', 1962, he claimed that the album this drawing previously belonged to had been possibly selected by the artist for (and thus owned by) Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689), in Rome from 1655-1689, and then by Cardinal Decio Azzolini, Rome (1623-1689). However, this information has never been confirmed, so is omitted from the recent literature, and has not been included in the provenance above.

Exhibition History

Mantegna to Cezanne - Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 24/02/1983-19/06/1983

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection A), The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/07/1981-26/01/1982

Claude Lorrain, Hayward Gallery, London, 07/11/1969-14/12/1969

Literature

Christie's, New York, Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings, & Watercolors, 27 Jan. 2010
under lot 137

Wine, Humphrey, Claude: the poetic landscape, London 1994
no. 57
ill. on p. 99

Farr, Dennis, 100 Masterpieces from the Courtauld Collections, London: Courtauld Institute Galleries, 1987
p. 164
ill. on p. 165 ...More

Mantegna to Cezanne: Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 1983
cat. no. 39
ill. on p. 51

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection A), Courtauld Gallery, London, 1981-1982
cat. no. 134
ill. on p. 95

Claude Lorrain, 1600-1682, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Grand Palais, Paris 1982-83
p. 282 under no. 67

Zwollo, An, 'An Additional Study for Claude's Picture "The Arrival of Aeneas at Pallantium' in 'Master Drawings', Autumn 1970 - pp. 272-75 and 322-23; 8, 3
p. 274

Claude Lorrain, Hayward Gallery, London, 1969
cat. no. 108

Roethlisberger, Marcel, Claude Lorrain: the drawings, Berkeley 1968; 2 vols
no. 1079
ill.

Roethlisberger, Marcel, Claude Lorrain: the Wildenstein Album, Paris 1962
p. 9

Seilern, Count Antoine, Paintings and drawings of Continental Schools other than Flemish and Italian at 56 Princes Gate, London SW7, London 1961; III
no. 215
pl. XL

Kitson, Michael, 'The "Altieri Claudes" and Virgil' in 'Burlington Magazine', Jul. 1960 - pp. 312-18; CII, 688
pp. 315-16
fig. 30

Calmann, H.M., H.M. Calmann. Dealer in Old Master Drawings., n.d. (1958)
no. 19
ill. ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: possibly one cut off at right centre edge but obscured by media. Does not appear to be a fleur-de-lis as on other watermarked pages from the Wildenstein album.

Inscription: Recto: lower left, brown ink, signed and dated (believed by Kitson and Roethlisberger to have been added later by the artist): "Roma 1675 Claudio fecit"; left centre edge, brown ink, artist's hand, cut off: "Citta della [...] Re Evandra [...] nte evantine"; right centre edge, brown ink, partly obscured by bodycolour, artist's hand: "[...] ruine de la [...] janicolo" and "[...] saturno [...]".

Collector's mark: none.

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