ATTRIBUTED TO ETIENNE MARTELLANGE | View of the Roman Arch at Orange, France

Bears unidentified collector's mark (L.500b)

Hinged to the mount at the right margin. The sheet has a number of losses which have been made up. Losses at all four corners of the sheet, the most substantial being at the lower right corner where there are a number of larger holes and losses that have been made up. There are a few brown stains throughout, the most prominent in the ruin at the upper left of the sheet. Despite the losses the pen and ink remains vibrant and the overall image is still strong.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This grand and atmospheric drawing, executed in pen and ink and wash, depicts the Roman Arch at Orange, France.  The subject and handling of the pen and ink is reminiscent of drawings by the Jesuit architect, Etienne Martellange.   In Jon Whiteley's informative article of 1995, he discusses drawings by the artist in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.¹  The holdings at the Bibliothèque Nationale consist of 171 views of France, which were discovered by Henri Bouchot under an old attribution to François Stella.  The Ashmolean has 21 similar views, of which 17 have been given definitively to Martellange on the basis of comparison with the drawings in Paris.

One of the drawings by Martellange in the Ashmolean depicts a similar view of the Roman Arch at Orange.²  The drawing is in landscape format and the artist has included the surrounding terrain with other buildings and ruins in the distance, in contrast to the present sheet, where the Roman arch is the main focus of the composition.  In the foreground of both studies one can detect stylistic similarities in the handling of the pen and in the broad use of wash.

^1. J.J.L Whiteley, 'Architectural Views by Etienne Martellange and François Stella', Master Drawings, vol. 33, no. 4, 1995, pp. 367-387
^2. Ibid., fig. 15