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Two cows and a calf

Maker

(artist)
1604-1682

Title

Two cows and a calf

Date of Production

c. 1630 - 1645

Dimensions

Height: 12.3 cm
Width: 19 cm

Accession Number

D.1978.PG.415

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

From Captured on Paper, 2002:
Cattle and goats appear repeatedly in Claude's landscape paintings, where they are key elements in the evocation of the poetic pastoral idyll or classical antiquity. This was one of the sixty-four animal drawings which were originally bound into a volume known as the Animal Album. Few were reproduced exactly in Claude's paintings. As with this loosely-handled sketch, they probably served as aids to memory rather than as finished studies.

Notes

The ink has deteriorated the paper. Seilern dated this c. 1630-45, and that is supported by the watermark found in the paper.

Provenance

possibly obtained directly from the artist's heirs by Prince Livio Odescalchi, Rome (1652-1713) (mentioned in his death inventory, dated 1713-14, as part of the so-called 'Animal Album'); sale of the Odescalchi Collection, Rome, Sotheby (London), 20 November 1957, No. 67; purchased there by H.M. Calmann (London); Yvonne ffrench (London); purchased from her by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978), 29 June 1961 (£100); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

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

Four Centuries of Italian Landscapes, Alpine Club Gallery, London, 30/05/1961-15/06/1961

Literature

Seilern, Count Antoine, Recent Acquisitions at 56 Princes Gate, London SW7, London 1971; VI
no. 415
pl. XXV
dated c. 1630-45

Roethlisberger, Marcel, Claude Lorrain: the drawings, Berkeley 1968; 2 vols
p. 139, no. 224

Four Centuries of Italian Landscapes, Alpine Club Gallery, London, 1961
cat. no. 9
catalogue in the file

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermarks: lower centre edge, fragment: lower half of a coat of arms (type corresponding to Heawood 791-799, though no match – these all Rome or Italy dated between 1635 and 1646). Support (historic): lower centre edge, only tops of letters: “PL BAS” (19th century mark found frequently on van Gogh and Cezanne works).

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: none.

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