Here is one of the more spectacular drawings that we have offered. It is, according to auction record a print study for a book title page. The drawing in the center was added to create something of a frame or contemporary album page. In the first quarter of the 17thC, Rubens and studio created several frontispiece/title page print studies for publishers commissions. The "outside" of this piece would have originally had a blank central block which would have been filled in later with information about which book and author that it fronted. In this case, that blank has been covered with an absolutely beautiful sketch by Dom Campagnola. It appears to be Aurora in her chariot (that or it is a detail of a larger allegory). I always try to make this distinction in attribution because following the renaissance mindset can be troublesome, in the end it is difficult to distinguish between allegory detail or something more professional. In this case, the final product is absolutely beautiful. Much work and attention has been given to the coloring of the preparation of the sheet. It is not simply iron oxide, there is too much "red" in it. It appears that may be a product of several thin layers of hematite, with layers of red lead over that. Regardless how it was achieved, the end product is incredible. It has a depth that is a reminder of Parrish’s style. Interesting and very beautiful. The remainder is a bark brown outline of the character and then white lead as highlight. The result is a dense, highly atmospheric work that stands out boldly against the rusty color of the penworked "frame". This would make for a definite championship quality for display. The frame sheet measures 44 x 29 cm while the drawing measures 21 x 16 cm. Both appear to be in very strong condition, albeit somewhat dirty. Please know that, try as hard as I might, the photographic quality of this work is skeptical at best. This is too bad because the frame portion is a beautiful golden/rusty brown and opposes the red/orange of the drawing incredibly.

Collections:

Here is where this piece as a whole gets interesting. There are several inscriptions throughout that seem to contradict my explanation above. In other words, the entire piece may have been a "framed" page taken from a collectors album. We have had several of these pages in the past and they have always been described as such because auction catalog descriptions describe them so. In this case, there are the numerals: 1793, 347, and 792 on the recto, and collector’s marks on the drawing. The verso contains a declension of these marks as: Joshua Reynolds, William Esdaile and Richard Cosway. While either of the latter 2 could have had albums adorned like this, to my knowledge neither did. Therefore, I like the above description because it has the body of a print study and then simply categorical enumeration for registration. The verso declension could simply be a rundown of previous owners for posterity.The inside drawing contains 3 collector’s marks: Sir Joshua Reynolds (L. 2364) Reynolds died in 1792 and the red chalk #1793 on recto and verso could be reference to his sale (which is also listed in the declension on verso. There were several including his sister the Marchioness of Thornton…which is also mentioned), Richard Cosway (L. 628) along with William Esdaile (L. 2617) were known to not only have very large private print collections but also, were known to commission prints from the drawings in their collections (Esdaile’s mark is handwritten and can barely be made out in extreme LL before Cosway’s black ink mark. So, given all of the evidence and records, I like my description above. These drawings were mated in one of these gentleman’s collection and were most likely made into prints somewhere. I have no experience with prints and as such no opinion on it’s existence. Anyway, a wonderful and beautiful piece with an interesting and historical provenance.