Hubert-François Bourguignon, known as 'Gravelot' 1699-1773 French School 18th.Century. Chalk drawing on laid paper "Dido On Her Funeral Pyre."
The mount inscribed 'Improbe amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis' and 'Illustration pour le livre IV. de l’Eneide/Mort de Didon sur son bucher. Iris à droite coupe avec des cixeaux/le cheveu qui retient encore la Reine à la vie./…sic ait et dextra crinem secat' 10.5 by 9 cms oval. 39 by 28 cms overall. Laid to backing sheet central vertical fold.
Provenance: Probably Marie-Joseph-Colombe-Henri-Denis Beccaria de Pavie, Marquis de Fourquevaux (1762-1841);
probably Emmanuel Bocher (1835-1919), Paris;
Léon Olry-Roederer (1869-1932), Paris, (on his typical ‘Gravelot’ mount with gold, red and green borders);
Sotheby’s, London, 21 October 1984, lot 484.
This work is believed to be a preliminary design for the tailpiece to Canto IV of Theobald's translation of the 'Aeneid', 1739. A more finished, signed, pen and ink version of the composition set within a rococo cartouche, with an identical inscription, 'Improbe Amor! quid non mortalia/pectora cogis?', is in the British Museum (Museum no. 1889,0724.87).
GB