Old Master and British Works on Paper
Old Master and British Works on Paper
Victor-Jean Nicolle
A staircase in a grand Palace, with a young artist admiring a fragment of an ancient relief
No reserve
Lot Closed
July 6, 01:09 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Victor-Jean Nicolle
Paris 1754 - 1826
A staircase in a grand Palace, with a young artist admiring a fragment of an ancient relief
Pen and brown ink and watercolour within black ink framing lines;
signed in brown ink on the portfolio to the lower right corner: V. J. Nicolle;
inscribed (possibly by the artist) on the (original?) mount: Vue dé l'escalier de l'academíe de France á Rome.
190 by 258 mm
Victor-Jean Nicolle was fascinated by Rome and made two long sojourns in the Eternal City, the first in 1787-1789 and the second in 1806-1811.
If this watercolour is indeed a view of the staircase of the French Academy in Rome, as the inscription on the (apparently original) mount states, the location would most likely have been the Palazzo Mancini in Via del Corso, where the Academy was housed from 1737 until 1793, before moving in 1803 to the Villa Medici. In 1818 the Palazzo Mancini was bought by Louis Bonaparte (1778–1846).