Lot Essay
One of a series of six small bodycolour studies in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, the Albertina, Vienna, the Kunsthalle, Hamburg, at Chatsworth, and in Kurt Meissner's collection, Zürich, K. Andrews, op. cit., nos. 47-51, pls. 31-6.
Although these bodycolour studies may have been made as independent works of art, they are almost always related to Elsheimer's pictures. That in Berlin is similar in composition to that of Tobias and the Angel in the Historisches Museum, Frankfurt, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 47, pl. 32 and no. 20, pl. 78. Keith Andrews describes Salome receiving the Head of Saint John the Baptist at Chatsworth as being possibly a preliminary study for a lost picture, which probably served as the source of Hendrick Goudt's oval print of the same subject, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 48. pl. 31 and fig. 58; Holl. 4. The Meissner example, The Mockery of Ceres, and that in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, are comparable to the artist's picture on copper in the Prado, Madrid, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 51, pl. 35, no. 50, pl. 36 and no. 23, pl. 83. The present drawing could be a study for a Bathsheba. The modelling is close to that of the female figure in David and Bathsheba in Vienna, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 49, pl. 33, also in bodycolour.
It could also be a study for a figure at a fire such as those found in the background of Elsheimer's pictures like Apollo and Coronis in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Saint Paul in Malta in the National Gallery, London, and The Flight into Egypt in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, K. Andrews, op.cit., nos. 21, 10 and 20, pls. 79, 53 and 86 respectively.
Hugh Howard (1675-1737), a painter from Dublin, moved to England at an early age. In 1697 he visited Holland and Rome where he studied with Carlo Maratta. In 1700 Howard was back in England and working as a portraitist. By 1714 he had married and stopped painting in order to concentrate on collecting. He was later appointed Keeper and Register of the Paper and Records of State, a post he got through the patronage of another famous drawings collector, the 2nd Duke of Devonshire. In 1726 he became Paymaster of the Royal Palaces. According to the inscription on the mount, by the same hand as that of the attribution, the drawing was given by Howard directly to another notable drawings collector, Richard Houlditch, who was an almost exact contemporary of Howard. He died in 1736, after having been director of the South Sea Company in London. Howard's collection was kept in his family, the Earls of Wicklow, and sold at auction in 1873.
Although these bodycolour studies may have been made as independent works of art, they are almost always related to Elsheimer's pictures. That in Berlin is similar in composition to that of Tobias and the Angel in the Historisches Museum, Frankfurt, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 47, pl. 32 and no. 20, pl. 78. Keith Andrews describes Salome receiving the Head of Saint John the Baptist at Chatsworth as being possibly a preliminary study for a lost picture, which probably served as the source of Hendrick Goudt's oval print of the same subject, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 48. pl. 31 and fig. 58; Holl. 4. The Meissner example, The Mockery of Ceres, and that in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, are comparable to the artist's picture on copper in the Prado, Madrid, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 51, pl. 35, no. 50, pl. 36 and no. 23, pl. 83. The present drawing could be a study for a Bathsheba. The modelling is close to that of the female figure in David and Bathsheba in Vienna, K. Andrews, op. cit., no. 49, pl. 33, also in bodycolour.
It could also be a study for a figure at a fire such as those found in the background of Elsheimer's pictures like Apollo and Coronis in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Saint Paul in Malta in the National Gallery, London, and The Flight into Egypt in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, K. Andrews, op.cit., nos. 21, 10 and 20, pls. 79, 53 and 86 respectively.
Hugh Howard (1675-1737), a painter from Dublin, moved to England at an early age. In 1697 he visited Holland and Rome where he studied with Carlo Maratta. In 1700 Howard was back in England and working as a portraitist. By 1714 he had married and stopped painting in order to concentrate on collecting. He was later appointed Keeper and Register of the Paper and Records of State, a post he got through the patronage of another famous drawings collector, the 2nd Duke of Devonshire. In 1726 he became Paymaster of the Royal Palaces. According to the inscription on the mount, by the same hand as that of the attribution, the drawing was given by Howard directly to another notable drawings collector, Richard Houlditch, who was an almost exact contemporary of Howard. He died in 1736, after having been director of the South Sea Company in London. Howard's collection was kept in his family, the Earls of Wicklow, and sold at auction in 1873.