16. Isaac de Moucheron
(1670-1744)

Classical Figures in a Grove of Trees

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Moucheron , Classical Figures in a Grove of Trees

Classical Figures in a Grove of Trees

Brown ink, and grey wash, 197 x 89 mm. Provenance: Neville D. Goldsmid (Lugt 1962); G. Leembruggen (L.2988) acc. to a note. Fluent pen drawing finished in grey wash, a complete compositional study with inked framing lines, on laid paper drum mounted to another sheet. The perhaps-imaginary view is clearly based on Italy. In spite of his French-sounding name, Moucheron was a Dutch artist born in Amsterdam, the son of Frederik de Moucheron with whom his drawings are sometimes confused. Isaac’s, though, clearly have a more eighteenth-century feel to them. He traveled in Italy (as well as in Germany) and is most famous for garden scenes and Arcadian landscape drawings, which often found a later incarnation as decorative paintings. Some of his drawings are stiff and formal. Others, like this one, quite free and spontaneous with an attractive, airy lightness.