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Lot Essay
First recognized by Perrin Stein (op. cit.) as a product of partnership between Natoire and Pannini, the present sheet depicts an ensemble of classical ruins, where figures are walking under a monumental arcade amongst real and imaginary antiquities. Born a decade apart, Panini and the younger Natoire knew each other well in Rome and joined their effort in producing some drawings where the Italian artist masterfully designed the architectural settings and the French painter the graceful figures that inhabits them. Despite the final work being attributed only to ‘Panini’ at lower left, the statuary and the other ornaments adorning the ruins are unmistakably by Natoire’s hand. As explained by Susanna Caviglia-Brunel, the two artists embraced a collaborative tradition that was particularly fashionable in eighteenth-century Rome, as attested by similar collaboration carried out by Jan Frans van Bloemen, called L'Orizzonte, with Carlo Maratti, Giuseppe Passeri, Filippo Lauri and Pompeo Batoni.
The present work shares provenance, stylistic and technical qualities with two drawings formerly in the collection of Richard P. Wunder (sold at Christie's, London, 7 July 1976, lots 148-149) and especially with one, featuring classical ruins and the Farnese Hercules, which is of same size and was similarly inscribed ‘Panini’ (S. Caviglia-Brunel, op. cit., no. R7; sold at Sotheby's, New York, 29 January 2013, lot 26).
As noted by Stein, several drawings listed in the artist's 1778 estate auction are described as done by Giovanni Paolo Pannini “with figures by Natoire” (see provenance): the present one can be tentatively by identified as the one described as part of lot 151 (“Deux autres précieux dessins d’architecture, forme en hauteur & coloriés; dans l’un on voit un bas-relief & le Torse atique; l’autre, le Nil du Vatican”; see Stein, op. cit., p. 183). Also pointed out by her is a copy of the lower section of the drawing executed by Hubert Robert and formerly on the art market (see Le dessin en couleurs. Aquarelles, gouaches, pastels, 1720-1830, Galerie Cailleux, Paris, 1984, no. 58, ill.).
The present work shares provenance, stylistic and technical qualities with two drawings formerly in the collection of Richard P. Wunder (sold at Christie's, London, 7 July 1976, lots 148-149) and especially with one, featuring classical ruins and the Farnese Hercules, which is of same size and was similarly inscribed ‘Panini’ (S. Caviglia-Brunel, op. cit., no. R7; sold at Sotheby's, New York, 29 January 2013, lot 26).
As noted by Stein, several drawings listed in the artist's 1778 estate auction are described as done by Giovanni Paolo Pannini “with figures by Natoire” (see provenance): the present one can be tentatively by identified as the one described as part of lot 151 (“Deux autres précieux dessins d’architecture, forme en hauteur & coloriés; dans l’un on voit un bas-relief & le Torse atique; l’autre, le Nil du Vatican”; see Stein, op. cit., p. 183). Also pointed out by her is a copy of the lower section of the drawing executed by Hubert Robert and formerly on the art market (see Le dessin en couleurs. Aquarelles, gouaches, pastels, 1720-1830, Galerie Cailleux, Paris, 1984, no. 58, ill.).