Early British Drawings, Watercolours and Portrait Miniatures

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Lot 117
  • 117

Marcellus Laroon

Estimate
3,000 - 4,000 GBP
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Description

  • Marcellus Laroon
  • Figure drawings
  • four, framed together, each signed with monogram u.r.: ML
  • pen and brown ink on laid paper
  • each 8.5 by 5.5 cm.; 3 1/2 by 2 1/4 in.
including front and back views of a mounted Drummer, a Sportsman with a gun, and a Peddlar

Provenance

Anonymous sale in these Rooms, 9 April 1992, lot 28 (bt. by the present owner)

Catalogue Note

Marcellus Laroon worked in England as a draughtsman and painter during the last quarter of the 17th Century. Born to French parents he is thought to have settled in Yorkshire, England, at an early age. By 1674 he was living on Bow Street, London, at a residence that he retained until his death in 1705. Described by Robert Raines as a 'skilful, accomplished and vigorous draughtsman' (Robert Raines, Marcellus Laroon, 1966, p. 13), for a time he held the title of Drawing Master to King William III.

This rare set of figure drawings can be compared to a group of four works that were sold on the London art market in 1991 and a single drawing now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. All of almost exactly the same size, Raines describes the group as being drawn on the back of roughly made playing cards.