Lot 36
36
Guillaume Courtois, called il Borgognone (Saint-Hippolyte 1628-1679 Rome)
Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Ann Sutherland Harris
Guillaume Courtois, called il Borgognone (Saint-Hippolyte 1628-1679 Rome)

A male nude standing

Details
Guillaume Courtois, called il Borgognone (Saint-Hippolyte 1628-1679 Rome)
A male nude standing
red and white chalk
17 x 8 ¾ in. (43.2 x 22.2 cm)
Provenance
The Earl Beauchamp; Sotheby's, London, 9 July 1973, lot 49 (as French School, ca. 1700).
Exhibited
Pittsburgh, Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh Collects: European Drawings, 1500 to 1800, 2004-2005, no. 14 (entry by T. Smart).

Lot Essay

Exhibiting Courtois' sophisticated understanding of anatomy and the influence of Gianlorenzo Bernini, this powerful nude is dated by Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò (written communication) to the beginnings of the artist’s career in the 1550s when he was working for the Pamphilj family between Rome and their suburban residence at Valmontone. The tall, slender model relates to a group of red chalk drawings executed by Courtois in preparation for the figure of Polyphemus, frescoed at Villa Pamphilj, Valmontone, between 1658 and 1661 (D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Guglielmo Cortese und Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Düsseldorf 1976, nos. 191-92; S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Disegni di Guglielmo Cortese (Guillaume Courtois) detto il Borgognone […], Rome 1979, no. 17).

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