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  • image Adam vol.56/79

Reference number

Adam vol.56/79

Purpose

Capriccio showing a ruined arch with two bays of a Corinthian portico to one side. Below the arch are two figures, one mounted on horseback.

Aspect

Perspective

Inscribed

Inscribed in ink on backing sheet 30; in red ink 79

Signed and dated

  • Undated, probably 1756 or 1757.

Medium and dimensions

Pen, grey wash 120 x 96; laid/mounted onto backing sheet size 132 x 112

Hand

Robert Adam (attributed to)

Notes

According to Fleming, this drawing is attributable to Robert Adam, executed 'in the manner of Pannini', and is dated 1756-7 (see Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome (London, 1962), caption to pl.69). Giovanni Paolo Pannini, who died in 1765, was professeur de perspective at the French Academy in Rome, where he taught Charles-Louis Clérisseau in 1752-53 (see Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820) Dessins du musée de l'Ermitage Saint-Petersbourg catalogue of exhibition held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1995, pp.16-7). Neither this drawing, nor its companion in Adam vol.56/67, described as being in the style of Pannini - match any small-scale Pannini drawings. The drawings by Pannini that Robert Adam possessed were considerably larger than any of the drawings in Adam volume 56 (see Bolton The Architecture of Robert and James Adam 2 vols. (London, 1922), vol.II, pp.326-7).Both this drawing and that in Adam vol.56/67 are numbered in ink on part of the original mounting sheets, as part of an Adam-Clérisseau set. There is a copy of this drawing by C J Richardson (1806-1871) in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (P&D 93.G.8/43).

Literature

Rep. Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome (London, 1962), pl.69

Level

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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