A herdsman with two cows

Details

Claude Gellée, called Claude Lorrain (Champagne 1600-1682 Rome)
A herdsman with two cows
pen and brown ink
4 ¾ x 7 3/8 in. (11.9 x 18.6 cm)

Provenance

Probably Queen Christina of Sweden (1625-1713);
Prince Livio Odescalchi (d. 1689), Rome (the album of 64 drawings recorded in the inventory prepared at his death, dating from 29 November 1713), and then by descent.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 20 November 1957, lot 67 (an album of 64 drawings, £2500 to Hans Calmann).
with Hans Calmann, London, 1958, from whom acquired by Robert Landolt.

Literature

M. Roethlisberger, Claude Lorrain. The Drawings, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968, I, p. 58, II, no. 220.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Part of a dismembered sketchbook of sixty-four sheets once in the possession of Prince Livio Odescalchi and named the ‘animal album’ by Marcel Roethlisberger, this study of a peasant and his two cows can be compared to a number of other drawings in which the animals – cattle, goats and dogs – are more often than not depicted in profile, and which Claude is thought to have made in the Roman campagna in the years 1635-1645 (Roethlisberger, op. cit., nos. 215-222, ill.).

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