Donato Creti

With Galerie Eric Coatalem, Paris; acquired 1998

Drawing is laid down and much made up especially along the right edge and large area of bottom right corner. Paper has been cleaned - traces of old stains and foxing in central trees and up into sky.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Elegantly finished drawings of this type, depicting groups of figures in landscapes, are characteristic of Creti's pen style.  Although they can occasionally be related to paintings, most seem to have been executed as independent works of art.  These decorative pastorals might also have literary or allegorical meanings or associations. Comparable examples are at Windsor, the Courtauld Institute, the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, the Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.¹  In her catalogue of the Bolognese drawings at Budapest, Andrea Czére presents the most illuminating discussion of the group, saying that these works seem to originate from the commission given to Creti by Count Marsili to paint a series of nocturnal astronomical subjects in 1711. She believes that the landscapes with figures followed in the subsequent decade and that they are a kind of Rococo idyll comparable to the work of French artists such as Watteau, but also owing a debt to the Emilian tradition of Niccolo dell'Abate and Parmigianino.

1. Respectively: Otto Kurz, Bolognese Drawings...at Windsor, London 1955, no. 196, pl. 32; C. Johnston, Il seicento e il settecento a Bologna, Milan 1971, p. 87, pl. XXXV; R. Roli, Donato Creti, Milan 1967, figs. 123, 124; A. Czére, Disegni di Artisti Bolognesi...di Budapest, Bologna 1989, p. 146, no. 71; Gainesville, et al., cat. no. 24 (gift of Jeffrey E. Horvitz)