5590 - 5932 FINE ARTS - 16th-19th CENTURY DRAWINGS, WATERCOLOURS and PAINTINGS
= Flemish goldsmith and painter, active in Antwerp.
AND 5 others, i.a. (the Rape of Europa) and (Polyphemus the Cyclops playing the pan flute), both by anonymous artists.
= The artist was a chemist who entered King's College in 1877.
AND 2 other watercolours.
- Brownish stains in left part; sl. frayed; trifle yellowed.
= With the collector's mark of Albert van Loock on verso (Lugt 3751).
- Doubled; mounted on paper along outer margins on verso; four pinholes in outer corners; browned on verso; right lower corner restored; upper corners repaired.
= "Jean Pierre Louis Laurent Houel (1735-1813), a landscape painter and engraver, studied architecture in Rouen before travelling to Paris. (...). Through the Marquis de Marigny he was sent to the French Academy in Rome in 1768, and the following year made his first trip to Napels and Sicily in the entourage of the Marquis d'Havrincourt. After his return to Paris in 1772 he exhibited his Italian views, which were well enough received that he determined on a second trip to Sicily. This he made from 1776 to 1779, including in his investigations Malta and Lipari. Here he assumed the role of observer, artist, and naturalist, amassing copious notes on new material. Claude-Henri Watelet and the director-general of the Gobelins Manufacture, d'Angivillers, were helpful in making this second trip possible. To finance it, Houel sold drawings that he had made in Italy when he returned to France. Forty-six were purchased by the king, and over five hundred by Catherine II of Russia. At this time he determined to publish the material he had accumulated on the voyage. (...) Houel was one of the first French artists to discover the antique ruins still visible in Sicily." (Millard, French Books, 80, note).
- Doubled; mounted on paper along outer margins on verso; w. some repairs/ restorations in upper and lower margins; browned on verso.
= "Jean Pierre Louis Laurent Houel (1735-1813), a landscape painter and engraver, studied architecture in Rouen before travelling to Paris. (...). Through the Marquis de Marigny he was sent to the French Academy in Rome in 1768, and the following year made his first trip to Napels and Sicily in the entourage of the Marquis d'Havrincourt. After his return to Paris in 1772 he exhibited his Italian views, which were well enough received that he determined on a second trip to Sicily. This he made from 1776 to 1779, including in his investigations Malta and Lipari. Here he assumed the role of observer, artist, and naturalist, amassing copious notes on new material. Claude-Henri Watelet and the director-general of the Gobelins Manufacture, d'Angivillers, were helpful in making this second trip possible. To finance it, Houel sold drawings that he had made in Italy when he returned to France. Forty-six were purchased by the king, and over five hundred by Catherine II of Russia. At this time he determined to publish the material he had accumulated on the voyage. (...) Houel was one of the first French artists to discover the antique ruins still visible in Sicily." (Millard, French Books, 80, note).
- (Sl.) yellowed; pinholes in corners.
Monogrammist "v.O."[?] (late 19th cent.). "11 Augustus Dordrecht'. Drawing, pencil, monogrammed(?) and titled in lower left corner, a few sm. annots. concerning colours, 20x33,2 cm.
- Lower blank corners trifle dam.
- A few sm. dents/ stains in upper part; nevertheless an attractive drawing.
= Supplied w. a photograph of the Bottelpoort in Nijmegen, showing some resemblance.
= Outside the central composition also a small sketch and some ink blotting lines. The artist became an American citizen in 1880 and died in 1911 in the Bronx.
- Yellowed; a few vague foxed spots.
= With the collector's mark of Albert van Loock on verso (Lugt 3751).
- Sl. agetoned; sm. portion lower left corner dam. and partly redrawn; a few tiny marginal tears.
- Both (sl.) foxed and yellowed.
- Both w. left corners tipped onto paper mount. = Attractive views.