Lot Essay
The present album of sketches of architectural details from the Farnese Palace was drawn by Oppenord when working in Rome between 1692 and 1698. The recto of the eighth leaf shows the famous cornice of the palace designed by Michelangelo and the ninth and tenth leaves are studies of the Farnese Gallery with Annibale Carracci's Perseus and Andromeda.
Oppenord was a protégé of the Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi, the Marquis de Villacerf, cousin of Colbert, and arrived in Rome with the latter's recommendation in 1692. Although not an official pensionnaire at the Académie de France, Oppenord was allowed to dine there. He was placed under the protection of La Teulière, director of the Académie, who wrote to Villacerf upon the artist's arrival in Rome: 'le Sr Openhor est un joli garçon, qui dessine de bon goust et avec intelligence ce qu'il fait. Il a autant d'application qu'on peut avoir; j'ay esté obligé de luy dire de la modérer un peu pendant les grandes chaleurs. Je ne croys pas, Monsieur, qu'il soit jamais capable de vous donner lieu de vous repentir de tout le bien que vous luy fairez ou procurerez', A. de Montaiglon and J. Guiffrey, Correspondance des Directeurs de l'Académie de France à Rome, Paris, I, 1887, 22 July 1692, p. 300.
Oppenord was a passionate draughtsman and drew 'tout ce qu'il trouve de bon: tombeaux, tabernacles, fontaines, ornemens, chapelles, frontispices, etc.', de Montaiglon and Guiffrey, op. cit., 7 October 1692, p. 327.
Other sketchbooks compiled by Oppenord in Rome are in the Louvre (L. Duclaux, Musée du Louvre Cabinet des dessins, Inventaire général des dessins, Ecole Française, XII, Nadar-Ozanne, Paris, 1975, XII, nos. 197-8, illustrated) and in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. More albums of the Roman period are in the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, in the Canadian Center for Architecture and at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Oppenord left Rome for Venice on 9 June 1698 and returned to France the following year. The drawings executed in Rome were used by Huquier nearly forty years later in two publications: the Livre de Fragments d'Architectures Recueillis et dessinés à Rome d'après les plus beaux Monuments. Dr. Elaine Dee has kindly confirmed the attribution of the present album to Oppenord.
Oppenord was a protégé of the Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi, the Marquis de Villacerf, cousin of Colbert, and arrived in Rome with the latter's recommendation in 1692. Although not an official pensionnaire at the Académie de France, Oppenord was allowed to dine there. He was placed under the protection of La Teulière, director of the Académie, who wrote to Villacerf upon the artist's arrival in Rome: 'le Sr Openhor est un joli garçon, qui dessine de bon goust et avec intelligence ce qu'il fait. Il a autant d'application qu'on peut avoir; j'ay esté obligé de luy dire de la modérer un peu pendant les grandes chaleurs. Je ne croys pas, Monsieur, qu'il soit jamais capable de vous donner lieu de vous repentir de tout le bien que vous luy fairez ou procurerez', A. de Montaiglon and J. Guiffrey, Correspondance des Directeurs de l'Académie de France à Rome, Paris, I, 1887, 22 July 1692, p. 300.
Oppenord was a passionate draughtsman and drew 'tout ce qu'il trouve de bon: tombeaux, tabernacles, fontaines, ornemens, chapelles, frontispices, etc.', de Montaiglon and Guiffrey, op. cit., 7 October 1692, p. 327.
Other sketchbooks compiled by Oppenord in Rome are in the Louvre (L. Duclaux, Musée du Louvre Cabinet des dessins, Inventaire général des dessins, Ecole Française, XII, Nadar-Ozanne, Paris, 1975, XII, nos. 197-8, illustrated) and in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. More albums of the Roman period are in the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, in the Canadian Center for Architecture and at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Oppenord left Rome for Venice on 9 June 1698 and returned to France the following year. The drawings executed in Rome were used by Huquier nearly forty years later in two publications: the Livre de Fragments d'Architectures Recueillis et dessinés à Rome d'après les plus beaux Monuments. Dr. Elaine Dee has kindly confirmed the attribution of the present album to Oppenord.