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Sweep of a river with fishermen and a town in the background (View of Florence)

Maker

(artist)
1472-1517

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1504 - 1508

Medium

pen and brown ink on laid paper, left upper edge partly made up, inlaid into Gabburri window mount with brown ink and wash borders

Dimensions

Height: 21.1 cm
Width: 29.3 cm

Accession Number

D.1978.PG.88

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 Florentine friar Fra Bartolommeo is one of the earliest Italian artists to have left a large group of landscape drawings, many of which were composed in preparation for his paintings. This view of Florence from the nearby Tuscan hills features small figures on the embankment of a river that leads towards the city and its prominent cathedral dome. The swift, light pen strokes suggest that the artist created the work quickly, possibly at the location itself.

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 36; purchased there by Colnaghi (London) on behalf of Count Antoine Seilern (1901-1978) (£5,500); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, The Frick Collection, New York, 02/10/2012-27/01/2013

Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/06/2012-09/09/2012

Master Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 16/10/1991-19/01/1992 ...More

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 ...Less

Literature

Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, Frick Collection, New York and Courtauld Gallery, London London 2012-2013
cat. no. 9
ill. on p. 69

Master Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1991
cat. no. 5
pp. 18, 171-72
ill. on p. 19
dated "perhaps c. 1504-08"

Fra Bartolommeo: master draughtsman of the high Renaissance, Boymans-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam; MFA, Boston; Kimbell Art Museum, Texas; Morgan Library, New York, 1990-92 Rotterdam 1990
p. 377 ...More

Farr, Dennis, 100 Masterpieces from the Courtauld Collections, London: Courtauld Institute Galleries, 1987
p. 126
ill. on p. 127
entry author: David Ekserdjian

Fischer, Chris, Disegni di Fra Bartolommeo e della sua scuola, Florence 1986
p. 53 under no. 17

Mantegna to Cezanne: Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 1983
cat. no. 13
ill. on p. 27

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection A), Courtauld Gallery, London, 1981-1982
cat. no. 124
ill. on p. 87

Berenson, Bernard, I disegni dei pittori fiorentini, Milan 1961; 3 vols.
vol. II, no. 433F, p. 73, fol. 36

Härth, Isolde, 'Zu Landschaftszeichnungen Fra Bartolommeos und seines Kreises' in 'Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz', Feb. 1960 - pp. 125-30; NB II
p, 129n16
full article in file for D.1978.PG.83

Manning, E. and James Byam Shaw, Colnaghi's, 1760-1960, London 1960
pl. 61

Seilern, Count Antoine, Italian paintings and drawings at 56 Princes Gate, London, SW7, London 1959; II
no. 88
pl. XLIV
dated 1504-17

Sotheby's, London, Drawings of landscapes and trees by Fra Bartolommeo, 20 November 1957
lot 36
pl. 56

Illustrated London News, 2 November 1957
p. 742

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 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Support (historic), Recto: lower right corner, graphite: "5".

Collector's mark: none.

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