OLD MASTER DRAWINGS 25 January 2017
The Old Master Drawings sale features newly discovered or rarely seen drawings spanning four centuries and numerous countries. The sale is led by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones’, The Madness of Sir Tristram (right, estimate $350/450,000). In this highly finished watercolor, the artist successfully evokes the atmosphere of the medieval world by drawing inspiration from the early northern and Italian Renaissance, in particular, Botticelli’s Primavera. The Italian section is further distinguished by a rare preliminary study for a chiaroscuro woodcut by Parmigianino and important discoveries by Lelio Orsi and Nosadella. This season, the sale will present one of the most exceptional and comprehensive groups of works by François Boucher to come on the market in decades. The group of seven drawings is led by the spontaneous and large scale trois crayons drawing Study of a Young Chinese Woman Seated at the Table (estimate $50/70,000). Representing an important element in his career, Boucher re-uses these characters throughout his oeuvre enlivening them each time with a renewed sense of energy and vivid imagination. Additional British works on offer include exceptional works by Turner, William Blake and Gainsborough. A remarkable selection of seven works by Il Guercino offers rare landscapes in pen and ink and red chalk including A River Landscape with a Fisherman, a City in the Background (estimate $30/40,000) alongside superb figure drawings from all periods of the artist’s career.