Gérard de Lairesse Liège 1640 - 1711 Amsterdam

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Description

Gérard de Lairesse
two mythological scenes: venus and adonis; diana and endymion
both bear signature and date: Berghem 1650
both black and red chalk

Literature

A. Stefes, "Berchem und Lairesse-zwei neu entdeckte zeichnungen als mögliches bindeglied", in Delineavit et Sculpsit, no. 25, September 2002, pp. 17-25, reproduced figs. 1 and 2

Catalogue Note

On account of the signatures that they bear, these drawings were formerly attributed to Nicolaes Berchem, but as Annemarie Stefes has described (see Literature), they must in fact be copies after Berchem by Gérard de Lairesse. In the case of the drawing of Venus and Adonis, the original by Berchem is known: it is a signed and dated drawing of 1648, in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam. No Berchem prototype for the Diana and Endymion is known, but there is, however, a painting of the subject by Lairesse (also Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. A 4210), which is similar in composition to the present drawing. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that both drawings are based on originals by Berghem, and were made by Lairesse as preliminary studies for paintings, inspired by Berchem prototypes.