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Lot Essay
The present drawing is from a group of about 25 drawings of horses by Callot inspired by Tempesta etchings, D. Ternois, Jacques Callot, Paris, 1962, nos. 25-41, illustrated, P. Rosenberg, op. cit., under no. 20, and sold in these Rooms, 3 July 1990, lot 103, illustrated in colour. All of these drawings are free copies after a series of etchings, Horses of Different Lands, by Tempesta done in Rome in 1590, Illustrated Bartsch, XVII, nos. 941-68. The drawings are dated by Ternois to 1612-13, when Callot worked for Tempesta, and by Rosenberg to 1615-17, at the time he was in Florence.
Callot was particularly taken by the sixth plate of the series (Illustrated Bartsch, XVII, no. 946): besides copying it six times on the recto of the present drawing, he studied the same horse in drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Ternois, op. cit., no. 31) and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, P. Rosenberg, op. cit., under no. 20. In the present sheet Callot added a groom leading the horse in the lower right corner.
The verso of this drawing is copied from the head of the horse on the tenth plate of the series, Illustrated Bartsch, XVII, no. 950.
Many of the drawings from this series share the same provenance: an unidentified collector (L. 2736), who must pre-date 1765 as his mark is found on Guise drawings at Christ Church, Oxford, and therefore before Nathaniel Hone and John Thane who also owned the present study. The initials at the top left corner of this drawing probably also represent an early provenance, as it occurs on two sheets of the series in the British Museum, D. Ternois, op. cit., 1962, nos. 25, 27, the former exhibited in Washington, H. D. Russell, Jacques Callot, Prints and related Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975, no. 173, illustrated. The system of double-numbering on this sheet appears on most of the Callot's drawings after Tempesta.
Diane Russel points out that Callot throughout his carreer used this stock of drawings copied from Tempesta in prints such as in the series of The Life of Ferdinand I. The horse's head on the verso of the present drawing was the inspiration for the horse's head in Callot's equestrian portrait etching of the Prince of Phalsbourg, J. Lieure, Jacques Callot, Paris, 1927, no. 505, illustrated.
Callot was particularly taken by the sixth plate of the series (Illustrated Bartsch, XVII, no. 946): besides copying it six times on the recto of the present drawing, he studied the same horse in drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Ternois, op. cit., no. 31) and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, P. Rosenberg, op. cit., under no. 20. In the present sheet Callot added a groom leading the horse in the lower right corner.
The verso of this drawing is copied from the head of the horse on the tenth plate of the series, Illustrated Bartsch, XVII, no. 950.
Many of the drawings from this series share the same provenance: an unidentified collector (L. 2736), who must pre-date 1765 as his mark is found on Guise drawings at Christ Church, Oxford, and therefore before Nathaniel Hone and John Thane who also owned the present study. The initials at the top left corner of this drawing probably also represent an early provenance, as it occurs on two sheets of the series in the British Museum, D. Ternois, op. cit., 1962, nos. 25, 27, the former exhibited in Washington, H. D. Russell, Jacques Callot, Prints and related Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975, no. 173, illustrated. The system of double-numbering on this sheet appears on most of the Callot's drawings after Tempesta.
Diane Russel points out that Callot throughout his carreer used this stock of drawings copied from Tempesta in prints such as in the series of The Life of Ferdinand I. The horse's head on the verso of the present drawing was the inspiration for the horse's head in Callot's equestrian portrait etching of the Prince of Phalsbourg, J. Lieure, Jacques Callot, Paris, 1927, no. 505, illustrated.