Set Of Five 18th Century Circular Landscape Old Master Drawings Jpll Houël 1735-1813 Dated 1784

Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houël (Rouen 1735 – 1813 Paris)

A Set of Five Circular Landscapes with Figures

Watercolour and bodycolour on paper, framing lines in black ink and green and yellow wash, circular, diameter of largest landscape 120 mm (4.7 inch), of the two medium-sized watercolours 105 mm (4.1 inch) and of the two small-sized watercolours 80 mm (3.1 inch); framed in the original late 18th-century gilded circular frames

All monogrammed and dated ‘JH 1784’

Provenance
Private collection, USA

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Jean-Pierre Houël was born in a family of prosperous artisans, who sent the promising youth to the drawing academy when he was fifteen; he was further educated in Paris by Francesco Casanova. In 1758 Houël published a book of landscape engravings, and in 1768 painted six views of the estates of the Duc de Choiseul. The following year his influential patrons secured a place for him at the French Academy in Rome. Here he was captivated with Italian customs, landscapes and ancient sites, and travelled throughout Southern Italy, making gouache drawings which were shown in Paris in the early 1770s.

During the years 1776 to 1779 he returned to Italy, travelling in Sicily, Lipari and Malta, after which he published the lavishly illustrated Voyage Pittoresque des Isles de Sicile (…) (Paris 1782-87). Houël’s main intention was to illustrated local topography, but his delicate applications of watercolour also magnificently captured the effects of light and atmosphere. In later years Houël pulished two illustrated treatises on elephants, and volumes on other species  may have been intended.

While patronised by the high aristocracy under Louis XV and XVI during the first half of his career, Houël experienced the horrors of the Revolution at close quarters and documented the events, for instance in the Storming of the Bastille of 1789 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris). He continued to work through this turbulent period into Napoleon’s period.

These five charming watercolours were painted at the height of Louis XVI’s reign and illustrate the high sophistication which Houël’s Italianate Rococo art had achieved. The delightful scenes all show Mediterranean landscapes with Classical remains and elegant figures in contemporary costumes, and such miniatures were highly popular at the time in court circles.