Open IIIF manifest What is IIIF IIIF viewers

Windswept bank with trees

Maker

(artist)
1472-1517

Title

Date of Production

1504 - 1517

Medium

pen and brown ink on laid paper, inlaid into a Gabburri window mount with brown ink and wash borders

Dimensions

Height: 20.5 cm
Width: 28 cm

Accession Number

D.1978.PG.87

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

The Dominican monk Fra Bartolommeo was a renowned painter and talented draughtsman whose landscape drawings are amongst the earliest of their kind. Some of his drawings may have been executed out of doors. In this example, the accurate observation of the windswept trees and the rocky terrain expresses the artist’s genuine interest in nature. The tiny figures are less realistic and may have been added to create contrast with the imposing surroundings.

Provenance

bequeathed by the artist to his fellow Dominican and disciple, Fra Paolino da Pistoia (c. 1490-1527); given by him before his death to nun and artist Suor Plautilla Nelli, Florence (1524-1588) [see P. Marchese, 'Memorie del piu insigni pittori...' 1878-79, p. 167]; bequeathed to her Convent of S. Catherine in Piazza San Marco, Florence; purchased there by Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri, Florence (d. 1742), 1725 [see Gronau 1957, p. iii], and bound all 41 drawings in an album in 1730 (as by Andrea del Sarto); purchased from him by William Kent (dealer active c. 1742-62), either around 1730 when in Italy, or with the rest of Gabburri's drawings collection in 1758 in Florence; unidentified English collection, where some of the drawings were copied by Robert Surtees of Mainsforth, County Durham, in 1768 [see Fischer 1990, p. 375]; purchased by a private collector in Southern Ireland, 1925 [Gronau 1957 p. v]; that collector's sale, Sotheby's (London), 20 November 1957, lot 31; purchased there by Colnaghi (London) on behalf of Count Antoine Seilern (1901-1978) (£1,700); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Unseen, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 15/01/2015-29/03/2015

Literature

Seilern, Count Antoine, Italian paintings and drawings at 56 Princes Gate, London, SW7, London 1959; II
no. 87
pl. XLIII
dated 1504-17

Sotheby's, London, Drawings of landscapes and trees by Fra Bartolommeo, 20 November 1957
lot 31
pl. 51

Jeudwine, W.R., 'Fine works on the market: a volume of landscape drawings by Fra Bartolommeo' in 'Apollo', Nov. 1957 - pp. 132-35; 66
p. 135
in file for D.1978.PG.83

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: Support (historic), Recto: lower right corner, brown ink: "2"; lower right corner, graphite: "3".

Information on this object may be incomplete and will be updated as research progresses. We are particularly committed to addressing any discriminatory or offensive language and ideas that might be present in our records. To help improve this record, and to enquire about images of The Courtauld Gallery Collection, please email gallery.collectionsonline@courtauld.ac.uk. Find out more about using and licensing our images.

____________________________

Buy a print from our collection