THE ALMOST-FORGOTTEN CENTURY
(The 18th, In Case You Forgot)
  1. Canaletto, View of a Town on a River Bank
  2. Canaletto, Landscape with a Tower
  3. Manaigo, Saint John the Baptist in a Niche
  4. Faldoni, Abraham and Melchizedek
  5. Anesi, Veduta di Villa Madama
  6. Cignaroli, The Three Marys at the Cross
  7. Tiepolo, The Holy Family Passing a Statue
  8. att. to Panfili, Design for the Title Page
  9. Piranesi, Piazza del Popolo
  10. Piranesi, The Pantheon (Exterior)
  11. Piranesi, The Piazza Navona with S. Agnese on the Right
  12. Piranesi, The Isola Tiberina with S. Bartolomeo in the Foreground
  13. Novelli, Emblem Medalion for Gaetano Vitali
  14. Volpato, Il Boschetto d’Arcadia verso la Reggia
  15. Boucher, Tête de Bourgeois Coiffé
  16. Gautier-Dagoty, François Boucher
  17. Demarteau, Jeune Fille à la Cage
  18. Fragonard, Deux Femmes sur un Nuage
  19. Gillot, La Vie des Satyrs (Set of Four)
  20. Descourtis, Paul et Virginie (Set of Six)
  21. Moyreau, La Musette
  22. Van Loo, Pierrot et Scapin
  23. LePrince, Les Pêcheurs
  24. LePrince, 2me Suite de Divers Cris de Marchands de Russie
  25. Robert, Les Soirées de Rome: Title Page
  26. Delarue, A Pagan Sacrifice
  27. Loutherbourg, Resting Peasants with Animals in a Landscape
  28. Loutherbourg, 1ére Suite de Soldats (Set of Six)
  29. Loutherbourg, 2nde Suite des Figures (Set of Six)
  30. Janinet, Deux Vuës de la Grèce (pair)
  31. Moitte, La Catéchisme
  32. Mauclair, Quand l’Hymen Dort
  33. Moreau, Les Petits Parains
  34. Norblin de la Gourdaine, Le Grand Joueur
  35. Mallet, A Couple Under a Parasol
  36. Drevet, Jacques Benigne Bossuet
  37. Earlom, A Game Market
  38. Hogarth, A Chorus of Singers
  39. MacArdell, Lady Caroline Russell
  40. Cooper, Mountainous Landscape with a Herd on the Move
  41. Pether, King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy
  42. Runciman, Perseus and Andromeda (Large Plate)
  43. Robertson, Cowherds and Cattle by a Stand of Trees
  44. Worlidge, Bust of a Man in a Feathered Turban
  45. MacArdell, Lords John and Bernard Stuart
  46. Romney, Preliminary Study for the Painting of the Gower Family
  47. Howitt, The Fox Hunt (Set of 4)
  48. Bretherton, Concerto Spirituale
  49. Smith, The Fern Gatherers
  50. Beich, The Conversion of St. Paul
  51. Chodowiecki, The Wedding of Friderike Sophie
  52. Kauffman, Das Mädchen bei der Urne
  53. von Bemmel, The Artist by the Waterfall
  54. Glume, Portrait of the Painter Joachim Martin Falbe
  55. att. to Füger, Christ Calling Simon
  56. Wachsmuth, German Alphabet with Fantastic Figures
  57. Wocher & Janinet, The Wrestlers on the Ramparts of Bern
  58. Schouman, The Great Crested Grebe
  59. Stolker, Der Junge Mann
  60. att. to Andriessen, Sawyers by a Shed
  61. Vieira de Mattos, Seated Woman Holding a Bird, with a Nude Child
  62. Goya, Bien Tirada Está (It’s Nicely Stretched)
  63. Goya, Allá Vá Eso (There It Goes)
  64. Goya, Que Pico de Oro ! (What A Beak of Gold!)
  65. Goya, El de la Rollona (Nanny’s Boy)
  66. Goya, Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Pintor (Self Portrait)

27. Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg
(French, 1740-1812)
Resting Peasants with Animals in a Landscape, a Night Scene

(click on image to print)
Loutherbourg, Resting Peasants with Animals in a Landscape

Resting Peasants with Animals in a Landscape, a Night Scene

Original drawing in black ink and white gouache on black-prepared paper, 160 x 255 mm., ex collections: Garnier-Ravaisson (not in Lugt); Dr. George LaPorte (L. 1170); Michaud (not in L.); Lawrence Witten (not in L.). The effect, of course, is startling -- black on black with touches of white – and quite unexpected in the century. Actually, Loutherbourg made several drawings in this manner, using, however, a more conventional brown background. Two of them appeared at Christie’s in 1973 and 1997 and another was in the collection of the Brothers Goncourt. As in life our eyes gradually become accustomed to darkness and we can see our way about, so too the drawing takes a bit of time to become comprehensible and reveal its many fine and charming details. Loutherbourg, born in Strasbourg and a student of Van Loo, was a brilliantly talented painter, mostly of naval scenes, and also a revolutionary figure in theatrical scene painting and design. He was enormously successful in both fields, a member of both the French Academy and the British Royal Academy, but he ended his life as an associate of the adventurer and occultist Count Cagliostro, as a faith healer and in earnest pursuit of the philosopher’s stone.