Allegory of Messidor

Details

Louis Lafitte (Paris 1770-1828)
Allegory of Messidor
red and white chalk on (faded) blue paper
10 7/8 x 8 3/8 in. (27.4 x 21.4 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23-25 January 1980, lot 194.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Engraved

Salvatore Tresca (1750?-1815) (see Revolution und Romantik: Französische Druckgraphik des frühen 19. Jahrhundert, exh. cat., Cologne, Wallraf-Richardz Museum, Graphische Sammlung, 1989, no. 185, pl. 8).

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Lot Essay

The subject is the allegorical figure of Messidor, the month on the French revolutionary calendar that corresponds to 19 June through 18 July. Lafitte's drawing is a study for Tresca's engraving for the 1795 calendar.

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