Etienne JEAURAT

The present sheet is a relatively rare survival of a drawing from Jeaurat’s youthful period in Rome. According to the artist’s inscription on the backing sheet, this drawing was presented by the artist to a M. Nogaret, who may perhaps be identified with the bureaucrat and writer François-Félix Nogaret (1740-1831). The drawing later belonged to the French physician Albert Léon Victor Finot (1853-1941), who assembled an interesting and varied collection of Old Master drawings, predominantly by Italian and French artists. The mount of this drawing also bears the later mark of the 20th century French collector Alfred Normand (1910-1993), who began acquiring Old Master drawings shortly after the Second World War.


Pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white, over an underdrawing in black and red chalk.
Laid down on an 18th or 19th century mount.
Numbered No.86 on the mount.
Inscribed by the artist Donné a Monsieur Nogaret par moy Jeaurat / le 13 mai 1768 on the backing sheet.
Further inscribed, in different hands, Veduta di una parte del Colisseo / Dessein de Claude Lorrain on the backing sheet, and Vue d’une partie du Colisée on a piece of paper pasted onto the backing sheet.
Extensively inscribed in French, with reference to a drawing by Claude in the British Museum and to Nogaret, on the backing sheet.
Further extensively inscribed in French, with brief accounts of Jeaurat and Nogaret, on a piece of paper pasted onto the backing sheet.