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Unfinished capriccio showing a river crossed by a three-bay bridge with classical ruins on several levels on one side, and domestic buildings on the other side. In the foreground are a shepherd and sheep, together with other unfinished figures and horses.
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Reference number
Adam vol.56/6
Purpose
Unfinished capriccio showing a river crossed by a three-bay bridge with classical ruins on several levels on one side, and domestic buildings on the other side. In the foreground are a shepherd and sheep, together with other unfinished figures and horses.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil al luzientam saefer/ Hdd gacers?; in red ink 6
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably between 1745 and 1750.
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil; pencil framing line282 x 405
Hand
Robert Adam
Notes
This drawing by Robert Adam is probably a copy or a variation on a seventeenth-century Dutch print in the collection in the library at Blair Adam. In the Adam sale of 1818 (Catalogue of A Valuable Collection of Antique Sculpture etc. R. Adam, Christie's, London, 21 and 22 May 1818) there was a substantial number of lots of this sort (see lots 51-63 in D. Watkin, ed., Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons, Vol. 4, Architects, London, 1972, pp.142-49). Like his exact contemporary and brother-in-law John Clerk, Robert Adam used prints by Herman van Swanevelt, Anton Waterlo, Zeeman and Franz Edmund Weirotter as source material. It is unlikely that the scene here is topographical, although the classical columns and architrave appear antique.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk