Joseph Benoît Suvée Bruges 1743 - 1807 Rome

Purchased in London, Sotheby's, 6 November 1981, lot 136, reproduced plate III (as French School, circa 1770, A View across Roman Gardens)

Laid down. A slight indication of a fold in the centre, but this is only slightly visible in the lower section of the sheet. A little rubbing in the lower part of the drawing, and a small loss towards the centre in the upper part. Some surface dirt, but overall the drawing is in quite good condition, and the chalk is quite fresh.
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Suvée arrived in Paris in 1763 and studied with Bachelier.  He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1771, but as he had been born outside French territory, in order to qualify for the prize he had to declare his place of birth as Armentières, in French Flanders. The present drawing must have been made during the artist's stay in Rome, from 1772 to 1778.  The art of Fragonard had a strong influence on Suvée's development, as did that of Hubert Robert. In 1801, he returned to Rome, as the director of the Villa Medici, and died there in 1807.

This fine, atmospheric Roman view is comparable with a number of the artist's other drawings, most of which are executed in the same medium¹, and is particularly close in style to the View of the Interior of the Colosseum, in the Jeffrey E. Horvitz Collection.²

1. For other drawings by Suvée, see, J. H. Fragonard et H. Robert a Romaexhibition catalogue, Rome, Villa Medici, 1990-1991, pp.262-3

2. Mastery and Elegance, Two Centuries of French Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exhibition catalogue, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Art Museum, et al., 1999, p. 298, reproduced p. 299