- 381
LOUIS LAGUERRE | Design for a ceiling decoration: Gods and Virtues
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Louis Laguerre
- Design for a ceiling decoration: Gods and Virtues
- Pen and brown ink and watercolour, over traces of black chalk, within shaped brown ink framing lines;inscribed in brown ink, lower centre: virtutem juppiter & prudens / aeque, ac. justus praemiis / extollit and upper centre: matura, AEtas / vertute. Et, fortuna Deducentibus / Jovi. Decoranda sistitur;bears inscription, verso: Design for a Ceiling Painting / by / LAGUERRE
- 348 by 269 mm
Provenance
Lord Methuen, Corsham Court, Wiltshire;
with P. & D. Colnaghi, London, by 1941, according to an inscription, verso;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 1 December 1983, lot 317
with P. & D. Colnaghi, London, by 1941, according to an inscription, verso;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 1 December 1983, lot 317
Catalogue Note
It was previously suggested that this rare drawing, one of very few heightened with watercolour by the artist, may have been a preliminary study for Laguerre's monumental ceiling painting in the Saloon at Blenheim Palace, depicting the Triumph of the Duke of Marlborough. Whilst the subject matter is highly reminiscent of the Blenheim decoration, the clear differences both in composition, as well as the proposed shape of the ceiling, as indicated by the framing lines on our drawing, suggest that this sheet most likely relates to another, thus far unidentified project.