Old Master Drawings
Old Master Drawings
Property from the Collection of David and Louise Carter
Master of the Blue Wash
Study for a table ornament with putti riding hippocamps
Auction Closed
January 27, 05:29 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Collection of David and Louise Carter
Master of the Blue Wash
17th Century
Study for a table ornament with putti riding hippocamps
Pen and brown ink and blue wash over traces of black chalk;
bears numbering in pencil on the mount, upper center: 247
225 by 189 mm; 8 ⅞ by 7 ½ in
his sale, London, Mr. Hickman's Gallery, 25-28 February 1818, part of lot 289 ('The Works of Stefano della Bella'), for £32.10/-, to Holroyd(?);
Robert Holford,
thence by descent to his son, Sir George Holford,
by whose Executors sold, London, Sotheby's, 22 May 1928, part of lot 29B (as Stefano della Bella), for £145, to Castaguari;
sale, London, Christie's, A Collection of Drawings by Stefano della Bella, 18 March 1975, lot 69 (as Stefano della Bella),
where acquired by Herbert N. Bier on behalf of Dr. David Carter
The artistic personality known as the Master of the Blue Wash was first identified in a 1986 article by Detlef Heikamp.1 His works are known from the album sold by Thomas Tomkins in 1818 (see Provenance), which was originally attributed to Stefano Della Bella. Heikamp pointed out that whilst the drawings paraphrase Della Bella's printed material, their technique is subtly different: eleven, for example, use a blue wash, a medium unknown in any authentic drawings by Della Bella.2
1. D. Heikamp, 'Studien zur Mediceischen Glaskunst,' in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, vol. XXX, 1/2, 1986, pp. 214-234
2. P.D. Massar, 'Drawings after Prints by Stefano della Bella,' Print Quarterly, vol. XIV, no. 3, September 1997, pp. 283-288