LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Ink on paper

Size Notes:

(largest); Framed Dimensions 13.5 x 12.25 Inches

Markings:

Each signed

Condition:

Mild scattered brown staining; mild buckling to the sheet of each. Each matted and framed under glass.

Exhibited:

"Italian 19th Century Drawings and Watercolors," Shepherd Gallery, New York, April 1976.

Literature:

R. Olson, Italian 19th Century Drawings and Watercolors: An Album. Camuccini & Minardi to Mancini & Balla, Shepherd Gallery, New York, April 1976. Modernists and traditionalists will find works to covet within this catalogue. And, without a doubt, this auction presents a singular opportunity for enthusiasts of 19th-century European academic paintings and drawings. The sale boasts a rich array of masterful oils on canvas and panel in beautiful condition by celebrated Italian, French, Belgian, German, Polish, Danish and Spanish painters. Some of them, such as Cesare Detti's monumental Venetian spectacle, Henri III reçu par le doge Muccinigo au palais Foscari, with its cast of 60 figures, earned inaugural exposure to the public at the Paris Salons. One work in the sale, a jewel-like panel of a scullery maid peeling apples by Belgian genre specialist, Charles van Meer, was formerly in the personal collection of Queen Victoria of England and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Collectors will note that our Spring sale contains an attractive selection of 19th-century academic drawings from the estate of Neal Glass and Kerry Betensky. These sheets originate from an immense corpus of over 12,000 drawings assembled into a series of albums in the later 19th century by Giovanni Piancastelli (1845-1926), a painter as well as then-Director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome. During Piancastelli's period of activity, collecting drawings on this scale was not uncommon, particularly for a figure with close ties to an artistic community such as he had. It is notable that the current selection of drawings were contemporary works of art when Piancastelli acquired them. Many of the artists represented were figures Piancastelli knew personally, and who held teaching positions at the Academy of San Luca in Rome. While the fate of Piancastelli's entire drawing collection is unknown, the first batch purchased from it en bloc was sold in 1901 to the American Hewitt sisters, Sarah and Eleanor, who were forming a museum in New York City. Their 3,500 Piancastelli drawings remain in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. The Glass/Betensky drawings in the current catalogue share the above provenance, literature and exhibition history, unless otherwise noted in our online catalogue. Please note that the cataloguing for these sheets follows the extensive research and connoisseurship undertaken by the Shepherd Gallery, New York, as published in the catalogue to its 1976 exhibition Italian 19th Century Drawings and Watercolors: An Album. Camuccini & Minardi to Mancini & Balla.

Provenance:

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF NEAL GLASS AND KERRY BETENSKY Giovanni Piancastelli (1845-1926), painter, collector and Director of the Galleria Borghese, Rome; Estate of Reverend Father Francis Agius (1891-1958) of Our Lady of Counsel, Inwood, Long Island, New York; Sale, New York, by heirs of the above; Harry Glass, Long Island, New York, circa 1950s, acquired from the above; Estate of the above; Neal Glass and Kerry Betensky Long Island, New York by descent; Estate of the above.