Head of a woman looking to the left

Details

CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE (NÎMES 1700-1777 CASTEL GANDOLFO)
Head of a woman looking to the left
signed ‘natoire. f’ (lower right)
red and black chalk, blue and pink pastel, white heightening on brown paper
7 x 5 1⁄2 in. (18 x 14 cm.)

Provenance

Possibly Baron Carl Heinrich von Heineken (1706-1799), Dresden; Pierre Remy, Paris, 12 September 1757, part of 451.
Possibly Babault Collection; Picard & Glomy, Paris, 24 January-5 February 1763, lot 455.
Douglas Gordon, U.S.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 9 January 1991, lot 53.

Literature

D. Gordon, ‘Recollections of a Collector’, Apollo, 1965, p. 39
S. Caviglia-Brunel, Charles-Joseph Natoire 1700-1777, Paris, 2012, no. D441, ill.

Exhibited

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore Collects. 18th Century Drawings, 1984.

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Suzanna Caviglia-Brunel relates the present study to another study of an angel playing a harp (op. cit., no. D431, ill.) preparatory for the altarpiece painted by Natoire for the Chapel of the Enfants-Trouvés in Paris (see S. Caviglia-Brunel, ibid., no.195, ill.). The chapel was built in 1746-1750 based on designs by Germain Boffrand, but destroyed in the 19th century. The main altar depicted The Adoration of the Magi. Natoire’s scenes were set into trompe-l'œil decoration painted by Paolo Antonio and Gaetano Brunetti, giving the illusion that the viewer was standing in a ruined building.

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