Important And Published 18th Century Drawing French School, Ca 1770 Design For An Oval Frame

French School, circa 1770

Design for an Oval Frame

Pen and brown and grey ink, grey wash, watermark Pro Patria, 303 x 195 mm

Provenance:
- Hébert, 1969
- Lodewijk Houthakker (1926 – 2008), Lugt 3893

Published: Peter Führing, Design into Art. Drawings for Architecture and Ornament, 1989, volume I, cat. no. 441, page 304, repr. on page 305: “The oval frame, for a picture or a mirror, has a decoration Mercury’s staff and laurel leaves on the left and a snake and a hand-mirror with roses on the right. For another use for a similar frame, see the drawing by Pierre Clément Marillier (1740-1808) for an engraved portrait frame in the Kunstbibliothek in Berlin.”

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This is an important preparatory drawing made by a French frame maker of around 1770, the period of Louis XVI. It comes from the celebrated collection of the art dealer and collector Lodewijk Houthakker of Amsterdam, and was published in a major academic book (see photo).

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