Old Master Day Sale including Old Master Paintings, Drawings and British Works on Paper

Old Master Day Sale including Old Master Paintings, Drawings and British Works on Paper

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 223. MARCO RICCI  |  TEN 'VEDUTE DI FANTASIA'.

MARCO RICCI | TEN 'VEDUTE DI FANTASIA'

Lot Closed

July 29, 02:00 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 9,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

MARCO RICCI

Belluno 1676 - 1730 Venice

TEN 'VEDUTE DI FANTASIA'


Six in pen and brown ink and wash over traces of black chalk;

four in pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk

Various sizes: complete album page: 475 by 380 mm

(10)


Please note: Condition 11 of the Conditions of Business for Buyers (Online Only) is not applicable to this lot.


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These wonderfully free and spontaneous landscapes come from the same collection as the 24 sheets that were sold at Sotheby's London in 2018.1  Both sets of drawings demonstrate Ricci's extraordinary variety as a draughtsman and highlight his mastery of wash in creating romantic and poetic landscapes. Six of the present ten drawings are executed in pen and ink and wash, producing highly finished works that are lively and animated. Four are in pen and ink with touches of black chalk, much more loosely sketched in comparison to the more elaborate drawings, but still very vibrant and energetic. Two of the landscapes are set within a drawn oval, adding yet another aesthetic aspect to the group.


Interestingly, the drawings that make up the present lot, like those offered in 2018, are laid down to a very early album page, illustrating how artists and collectors of the 18th Century would originally have preserved such works and perhaps, in part, explaining the fine condition in which these drawings remain to this day. Indeed, the 146 drawings by Ricci in one of the richest holdings of his works, the Royal Collection, are also extremely well preserved, having been kept until the 20th century in two albums entitled Paesi (Landscapes) and Architettura (mainly theatrical scenery). Those albums were owned by the great 18th-Century collector, Joseph “Consul” Smith, whose drawings were acquired by King George III in 1762, forming the nucleus of the Royal Collection of drawings at Windsor Castle. It seems highly likely that the drawings in this lot once formed part of a similar album of landscape drawings by Ricci.


1. Sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 July 2018, lot 81