VENETIAN SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY | RECTO: SHEET OF FIGURE STUDIES FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE VIRGIN VERSO: DESIGN FOR AN ALTARPIECE WITHIN DRAWN LINES, WITH THE VIRGIN WITH SS. ELIZABETH AND JOACHIM, AND FURTHER SEPARATE FIGURE STUDIES, NOT ALL RELATING TO THE SAME COMPOSITION

Albin Schram, Lausanne

Albin Schram (1926-2005) was a voracious but discerning collector of works on paper and autograph documents. The story goes that his fascination with these records of human interactions and artistic creation was sparked when his mother presented him with a romantic letter written by Napoleon Bonaparte to his future wife Josephine de Beauharnais in an attempt to patch up an argument. The superb collection of late 19th and early 20th century works on paper from the Schram collection, including drawings by artists such as Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, August Macke, Emil Nolde and Alfred Kubin, was sold at Sotheby's last month, under the title: The Artist's Sketchbook: Where Inspiration finds Form.