An allegory of Night

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI ANTONIO BURRINI (BOLOGNA 1656-1727)
An allegory of Night
red chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
5 ½ x 10 ¼ in. (16.6 x 25.8 cm)

Provenance

John Bouverie (circa 1722-1750), East Betchworth, Surrey; by descent to his nephew
Christopher Hervey (died 1786), East Betchworth, Surrey; to his aunt
Elizabeth Bouverie (died 1798); by descent to
Sir Charles Middleton (1726-1813), Barham Court, Teston, Kent; by descent to
Charles Noel (1781-1866), 1st Earl of Gainsborough; then by descent to
Charles William Francis Noel (1850-1926), 3rd Earl of Gainsborough, Exton Park, Oakham, Rutlandshire; possibly Christie’s, London, 27 July 1922.
with Thomas Williams Fine Art, London (Exhibition of European Master Drawings, New York, 1991, no. 23, ill.).
Private collection, U.S.A.
with Nissman, Abromson, Brookline (Master Drawings, 16th-19th Century, New York, 1994, no. 22, ill.).

Exhibited

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Splendor and Elegance. European Decorative Arts and Drawings from the Horace Wood Brock Collection, 2009, no. 123, ill. (essay by C.S. Ackley).

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Until recently the drawing was part of an 18th Century album that had been in the collection of John Bouverie, an English gentleman who acquired a large number of drawings in Bologna before his premature death in 1750 (Exhibition of European Master Drawings, op. cit.). This sheet can be compared with two other similar drawings in the Escola Superior de Belas Artes in Oporto (see I exposição da Escola Superior de Belas Artes do Porto, exhib. cat., Oporto, Escola Superior de Belas Artes, 1962, nos. 83, 84), as well as with an interesting group of drawings, each representing a planet or divinity on a chariot in the Royal Collection at Windsor (inv. RCIN 903819-RCIN 903822; see O. Kurz, Bolognese Drawings of the XVII and XVIII Centuries in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 1955, nos. 690-693, ill.).

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