Johnson Manuscript page - head of Julius Caesar sketched twice with accompanying text

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Title

Johnson Manuscript page - head of Julius Caesar sketched twice with accompanying text

Date of Production

(mid 18th century) 1725 - 1775

Medium

black chalk, pen and brown ink (images), black chalk, pen and grey and brown ink (text), on laid paper; some black chalk offset on verso from facing drawing

Dimensions

Height: 21.3 cm
Width: 16.3 cm

Object Number

MS.1978.PG.1.100 (fol. 95)

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, left centre edge, fragment: lower half of a foolscap with five points visible above "4" above 3 Medici balls (matches Heawood 2002 - dated 1674 on a collection of Dutch paper in London).

Inscription: Recto: upper right corner, brown ink: “234 .a."; upper half of page, grey ink, transcribed in van der Meulen (CRLB) 1994: “H eodem loco q[uo]d cúm viro commune habeat Eqúis / [...]” [not fully transcribed]; below and to the right of this text, also grey ink: “facies quae ab equo / Derivari dici potest / oportet ut fit oblanga / naso longo et recto / osseo túm facies sicca et / genae ossae delicate tm / et tenera”; left centre, brown ink, with lines pointing to head: “prominentia“ and “concavitas“; lower centre, brown ink, with lines pointing to head: “macritúdo“, “Julius Cesar ex Equo“, “2“, “3“ and “4“ and on his cheek "plana"; lower right corner, graphite, folio number: “95“.

Provenance

possibly Albert Rubens (1614-1657); bought by Captain Maurice Johnson, 1742/44 for his father, Maurice Johnson Sr., Spalding (1688-1755); by descent in Johnson and Marsden families; W.A. Marsden (book-plate, 1897); Christopher Marsden (bookplate, 1930); his sale, Sotheby's (London), 23-24 March, 1970, lot 179; purchased there via Maggs Bros. (London) by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978) (£2,600); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 17/10/2017-21/01/2018; Stadel Museum, Frankfurt, 08/02/2018-03/06/2018

Literature

Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 2017-18
cat. no. 28
van der Meulen, Marjorie, Rubens copies after the Antique (CRLB), 3 vols, London 1994
vol. I, p. 78; vol. II, pp. 119-20, 144
Fig. p. vol. III, fig. 192
Jaffé, Michael, Van Dyck's Antwerp Sketchbook, London 1966
vol. I, pp. 31, 96n64

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