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*Robert Young (Canadian, b.1938) 'DOWN AT FIRST STREET BRIDGE', 1972 Screenprint, artist's proof, signed and inscribed with title in pencil 48 x 51.5cm *Artist's Resale Right may apply to this lot.
ROBERT YOUNG (1938 - )TEA CHEST WITH TRAVELLER AND MODERN ARTOIL ON CANVAS; SIGNED AND DATED 87; TITLED VERSO60" x 50" - 152.4 x 127 cm.Provenance:Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, ABNote:ROBERT YOUNG (1938 - )One of the most respected artists working in Canada today, Robert John Young was born in Vancouver, BC in 1938 and grew up in Burnaby. He enrolled in Science at the University of British Columbia with hopes of a degree in Forestry, but after the first year, he took a brief hiatus, travelled to Europe and upon his return, enrolled in the faculty of Fine Arts. He received his Bachelor of Arts Honours, Art History in 1962, a Certificate of Merit in 1964 from The City and Guilds of London School of Art, followed by an Advanced Diploma in Graphics from The Vancouver School of Art in 1966. He never looked back.Young has a long and illustrious exhibition history with more than 25 solo exhibitions throughout his career. In 1974 The Vancouver Art Gallery mounted a Robert Young retrospective. Other of his solo exhibitions include 'Robert Young: Ten Years' which was held at The Charles H. Scott Gallery in 1984, 'Robert Young: Quotidian View' at The Burnaby Art gallery in 2009, and Lacunarian Picturing at Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby, in 2011. His work is included in numerous private and public collections across Canada and in England including the Tate, in London, England, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Many of his works have also been collected by Elton John. Young also shared his love of art, having taught art and art history at the University of British Columbia for 16 years as Associate Professor in the faculty of Fine Arts. Young lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.Selected Corporate, Private and Public CollectionsArt Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BCArt Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ONBanff School of Fine Arts School of Fine Arts, Banff, ABBank of Nova ScotiaBeaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NBBell CanadaBurnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BCCanada Council Art BankCanadian Broadcasting CorporationCity of Vancouver CollectionClaridge Collection, Montreal, QCConfederation Art Centre, Charlottetown, PEIDe Beers Consolidated MinesElton John CollectionEsso ResourcesFirst City Finance CollectionGlenbow Alberta Institute, Calgary, ABImperial Oil CollectionLondon Borough of CamdenMississauga LibraryMontreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, QCNational Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ONNickle Arts Museum, Calgary, ABPenticton Art GalleryProvincial Government of British Columbia Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BCTate Gallery, London, EnglandToronto Dominion Bank University of Alberta University of British ColumbiaUniversity of CalgaryUniversity of GuelphUniversity of VictoriaVancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BCWinnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MBSelected Solo Exhibitions2015A Corner Reserved, Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto, ON2011Lacunarian Picturing, Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby, BC2009Robert Young: Quotidian View, Burnaby Art Gallery, BC2008Robert Young, Acclaimed Canadian Artist, Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC2007Strange Coquetry, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.2003Absolute Signal, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC2001Florilegium, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, AB2000Florilegium, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1998Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, ABScenes From An Inclined Plane, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1996House Spirits, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, AB1994Tart and Related Works, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1993In My Small Pavilion, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1992To Maintain Absurdity and Foster Ineptitude, Simon Fraser University Teck Gallery, Vancouver, BC1992Robert Young: Prints, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, AB1991Works on Paper, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1990The Affair: Plein Air & Contrapposto, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, AB1989Works on Paper, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BCRobert Young, The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC1987-88 The Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, AB1984Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC Drawings.Robert Young: Ten Years, The Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver, BC 1982Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, ON Mira Godard Gallery, Calgary, ABRedfern Gallery, London, England1981Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BCConfederation Art Centre, Charlottetown1980Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, BC1979Redfern Gallery, London, England1978Art Gallery of Southern Alberta, Lethbridge, AB1977Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BCMarlborough-Godard Gallery, Montreal, QCGlenbow Alberta Institute, Calgary, AB1976Marlborough-Godard Gallery, Toronto, ON Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, FranceRedfern Gallery, London, England1973Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BCRedfern Gallery, London, England1971Canada House, London, EnglandRedfern Gallery, London, England1970Jaffa Gallery, Doncaster, EnglandSelected Two- or Three-Person Exhibitions1988Complex Objects, Simple Forms, The Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr College of Art & Design. Vancouver, BC1987Vancouver, PS 122, New York1985 Printsuites, Ron Eckert and Robert Young, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1979Art Core, Vancouver, BC (4-page catalogue and illustrations)1979Pumps, Vancouver, BC1971Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, England1970Kingston Art Gallery, Kingston-Upon-Thames, England1970Morley College Gallery, London, EnglandSelected Group Exhibitions2012 Lights Out: Canadian Painting In The Sixties, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC2006-07 Paint, The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC2006Malaspina Printmakers at the Architectural Institute of BC, Vancouver, BCNew Directions in Printmaking, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC2005Prior Editions: 10 Years of Canadian Printmaking, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC2003Outside & In: towards a Culture of Place, Artists For Kids Gallery, North Vancouver, BC2001Prints from Canada's Pacific Province, Dublin, Ireland.1998Sightlines, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB1996Suncor Collects, Muttart Public Art Gallery, AB1995Hidden Values: Western Corporations Collect, Edmonton Art Gallery , ABWorks on Paper, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1994Works on Paper, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC1993Malaspina Printmakers Annual Member's Show, Vancouver, BCArtropolis, Vancouver, BC (catalogue and illustrations, p. 148) Prints, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BCDrawings, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BCWorking Documents: Vancouver Drawings, Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver, BC1992Drawings, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, ABMalaspina Printmakers Annual Members Show, Vancouver, BC1991Invited to: 20th International of Graphic Art, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.Celebration of Sound - The Art of Jazz, Community Arts Council of Vancouver, Vancouver, BC1990North of the Border; Contemporary Vancouver Art, Whatcom Museum of History of Art, Bellingham, Washington.U.S.A.1989Ken Webb: Prints By/Printed By, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, AB Travelling Exhibition.Invited to: 18th International of Graphic Art, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.Printshops of Canada, MacDonald Steward Art Centre and 9 other centres, 1987 through 19891988Contemporary '88 Calgary, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Olympic Arts Festival, Calgary, ABDrawing, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, AB Canadian Prints, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC1987Tactile Values, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC1986Ten Years Later, The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC Dog Days, Pitt International Galleries, Vancouver, BCMaking History, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC1985Malaspina Printmakers 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BCThe Malaspina Print Society 10-year Retrospective, Burnaby Art Gallery, BC1984Contemporary Canadian Printmakers, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia(travelling for two years under the auspices of the Print Council of Australia)1983Malaspina Printmakers Annual Members' Show, Vancouver, BC Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver, BCThe Hand Holding the Brush, London Regional Art GalleryThe October Show, Vancouver, BCVancouver Art and Artists, 1931-1983", the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC1982 Canadian Art in Britain Canada House, London, EnglandPrintmakers '82, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (catalogue, illustrations p.11).1981Realism: Structure and Illusion, MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, ONBC Currents, Sarnia, ONT. ( catalogue, p.19).Graphex 8, Art Gallery of Brant, Brantford, ONT. (catalogue, p.55).Malaspina Printmakers Annual Members Show, Vancouver, BCOn Canvas, Robson Square Media Centre, Vancouver, BC1980Selected Prints: Aspects of Canadian Printmaking, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, University Art Gallery and Museum, University of Alberta Malaspina Printmakers Annual Members Show, Vancouver, BC1979 Malaspina Printmakers Annual Members Show, Vancouver, BC1978Malaspina Printmakers Annual Members Show, Vancouver, BCCanadian Video Open, Calgary, AB (catalogue).1977 Malaspina Printmakers Annual Members Show, Vancouver, BCRedfern Gallery, London, England, Summer ExhibitionFrom This Point of View, Vancouver Art Gallery, BC (catalogue, p.41).1976Malaspina Printmakers Annual Members Show, Vancouver, BCCurrent Pursuits, Vancouver Art Gallery, BC1975Realismus und Realitat, Darmstadt, Germany (catalogue and illustrations p. 242).Current Energies, Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal, QUE. (catalogue).1973Redfern Gallery, London, England, Summer Exhibition .Bradford Print Biennale, Bradford, England (catalogue). The First British International Drawing Biennale, Middlesborough, EnglandRedfern Gallery, London, England, Summer Exhibition .1972Realism: Emulsion and Omission, Queen University, Kingston, ONRedfern Gallery, London, England, Summer Exhibition.Sculpture at Surrey University, England1971Redfern Gallery, London, England, Summer Exhibition.1970Redfern Gallery, London, England, Summer Exhibition.1969Redfern Gallery, London, England, Summer Exhibition.Selected LinksCanadian Art DatabaseRobert Young at Winchester Gallerries Modern - You Tube
ROBERT YOUNGFURNISHED ACCOMODATION (SIC) NO. 1acrylic on canvassigned and titled on the reverse; dated 1971 on gallery label on the stretcher 64 ins x 62 ins; 162.6 cms x 157.5 cms Provenance:The Redfern Gallery Ltd., London, UKPrivate Collection, QuebecExhibited:Robert Young, The Vancouver Art Gallery, March 6-13, 1974.Estimate: $2,500-3,000
Robert Young Canadian (1938 Alfa Romeo Original lithograph, 1966 Ed. #3/12 Size: Image size: 8 x 11in. Provenance: From the collection of Doris &Jack Shadboldt
The Philadelphia Directory, By Francis White. Philadelphia: Printed by Young, Stewart, and M'Culloch, 1785 8vo (8 x 4 1/2 in.; 203 x 114 mm). Interleaved with contemporary annotations by John McAllister, browning throughout. Original blue wrappers. Rebound in later maroon morocco with later manuscript additions at beginning and end, possibly by a descendant; covers a bit rubbed. [With:] Autograph letter signed by Francis White loosely inserted to Mr. Young, n.p., n.d., discussing the purchase of paper and quills. THE SECOND SEPARATELY PRINTED DIRECTORY IN THE UNITED STATES. The present directory, compiled by Francis White, lists Benjamin Franklin as the President of Pennsylvania. References: Evans 19385; Spear, American Directories through 1860, p. 273 Provenance: John McAllister (signatures on front wrapper and title-page, bookplate).
in English. The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments. Edinburgh: [R. Young], 1633. STC 16394. [ Bound with :] THE NEW TESTAMENT, in Greek. Noui Testamenti libri omnes... cum notis Roberti Stephani [etc.]. [Leiden, B. and A. Elzevir for] London: Richard Whittaker, 1633. The text agrees with the second Elzevir edition of 1633 apart from four readings, three of which are taken from H. Estienne's edition of 1576. Darton & Moule II, 4680; STC 2798. [ and :] Thomas STERNHOLD and John HOPKINS. The Whole Book of Psalmes collected into English meeter. London: G.M[iller] for the Companie of Stationers, 1634. STC 2650.5. 3 works in one volume, 8o (171 x 112mm). Double column, with woodcut initials. MOSAIC BINDING OF CONTEMPORARY OLIVE MOROCCO WITH CONTRASTING ONLAYS, covers with diamond-shaped onlay at centre matched by triangular onlays at corners, the onlays picked out with dotted and ruled gilt lines and enclosed by a double fillet and dotted border, all over gilt decoration with small tools, smooth spine with similar tooling and onlays in oval, quatrefoil and heart shapes (incision in top right hand corner of upper cover, slight ink stain and chip mark to lower cover, one onlay on spine slightly damaged). Provenance : Peter Needham 0-10-6d (mid 18th century inscription on front free endpaper); H.J. Round, Hagley (pencil inscription); Mortimer L. Schiff (label removed), (sold Sotheby's, 6 December 1938, lot 1399, for œ19; Sotheby's, 30 June, 1943, lot 374. to Foyle for œ24, with tipped-in catalogue description).
TENANT UNE MANDOLINE) signed bottom right "COROT" -- signed again center right "COROT" -- oil on canvas 25 1/4 x 19 in. (64 x 48.4 cm.) Painted circa 1860 PROVENANCE Jules Paton, Paris; sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, April 24, 1883, lot 42 Mme. Albert Esnault-Pelterie, Paris (circa 1900) Mme. Germain Popelin, Paris (?) Raymond Popelin, Paris (?) Sam Salz, New York Mr. William S. Paley, New York (acquired from the above June 4, 1954) Barbara "Babe" Cushing Paley, New York By descent to the present owner EXHIBITED Paris, Grand Palais des Champs Elysees Exposition Centennale de l'Art Francais, 1900, p. 111, no. 118 bis, (as L'Atelier) Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition des Chefs d'Oeuvre de l'Ecole Francaise. Vingt Peintres du XIX Siecle, May, 1910, no. 23 (illustrated on the cover) Paris, Paul Rosenberg, Exposition d'Oeuvres Importants de Grands Maitres du Dix-Neuvieme Siecle, May-June, 1931, p. 5, no. 13 (illustrated) Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Corot, 1796-1875, May-June, 1946, p. 55, no. 40 (illustrated) Chicago, The Art Institute, Corot, Oct.-Nov., 1960, no. 14 (illustrated) New York, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Oct.-Dec., 1969, no. 66 (illustrated) LITERATURE M. Roger Marx, Exposition Centennale de l'Art Francais, Paris, 1900, vol. 2. pl. 44 (illustrated) A. Robaut and E. Moreau-Nelaton, L'Oeuvre de Corot (catalogue raisonne). Paris, 1905, vol. III, no. 1560 (illustrated) M. Hamel, Corot et son Oeuvre, Paris, 1905, vol. 2, pl. 61 (illustrated) E. Heilbut, "Figurenbilder von Corot," Kunst und Kiinstler, 1905, vol. 4, p. 102 (illustrated) L. Rouart, "Collection de Madame Esnault-Pelterie," Les Arts, June, 1906, pp. 10-11, no. 54. (illustrated) R. Bouyer, "Corot peintre de figures," Revue de l'Art ancien et moderne XXVI, 1909, p. 305 P. Goujon, "Corot peintre de figures," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1909, vol. II, p. 472-473 P. Dorbec, "L'Exposition de vingt peintres du XIX siecle a la Galerie Georges Petit," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, July, 1910 M. Hamel, "Exposition des Chefs d'Oeuvre de l'Ecole Francaise," Les Arts, August, 1910 C. Bernheim de Villers, Corot, peintre de figures, Paris, 1930, no. 257 (illustrated) F. Fosca, Corot, Paris, 1930, pl. 69 (illustrated) J. Meier-Graefe, Corot, Berlin, 1930, pl. CXVII (illustrated) E. Faure, Corot (Maitres d'Autrefois), Paris, 1931, pl. 69 (illustrated) J. Rene, Corot, Paris, 1931, pl. 51 (illustrated) Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Jan., 1938, vol. 32 G. Bazin, Corot, Paris, 1942, no. 103 (illustrated) H. Focillon, "Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot," Corot raconte par lui-meme et par ses amis, Geneva, 1946 (illustrated opp. p. 145) F. Fosca, Corot, sa vie et son oeuvre, Brussels, 1958, p. 144 J. Leymarie, Corot, Geneva, 1966, p. 138 (illustrated) A. Zimmermann, Studien zum Figurenbild bei Corot, (Ph. D. dissertation), Cologne University, 1986, chapter IV F. Wissman, Corot's Salon Paintings: Sources from French Classicism to Contemporary Theater Design, (Ph. D. dissertation) Yale University, 1989, p. 110 Between 1860 and 1870, Corot painted a remarkable group of six pictures, all titled L'Atelier, depicting a woman seated in Corot's studio before an easel upon which rests a Corot landscape. Arguably the most complex and thematically rich of Corot's entire oeuvre, this group of pictures strikes a delicate balance between tradition and originality. Corot's multiple, inventive reworkings of the subject suggest that for him the project was an ongoing one, something akin to variations on a theme, rather than a single artistic problem to be solved. The two main phrases which comprise this theme -- the figure and the landscape -- clearly refer to those two distinct genres within Corot's work. L'Atelier is the site of their interaction, and the ensuing dialogue can potentially reveal a great deal about both. The decade during which the Atelier group was painted was the zenith of Corot's long and productive career. What had begun as a slow trickle of sales throught the 1850s (after thirty or so years of virtually no sales at all) grew to a steady stream through the 1860s, punctuated by the well-publicized purchases of the Souvenir of Mortefontaine (Musee du Louvre, Paris) by Emperor Napoleon III for the State in 1864, and of Solitude for the Empress Eugenie's personal collection in 1866. At the Exposition Universelle of 1867, Corot received his second medal (the first was awarded in 1855), as well as the distinguished Cross of Officer of the Legion of Honor, one of the highest forms of official recognition for a painter. Young painters (among them Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot) flocked to his studio for guidance. Critical assessment of his work during this decade was generally favorable from a broad spectrum of critics, Corot, paysagiste, was widely held to be the leader of the modern landscape school. Corot was virtually unknown to his contemporaries as a peintre de figures. Although he had sent a few figural compositions to various Salons, he had also devoted a significant effort throughout his career to painting cabinet-sized figure works. The vast majority of them depict women, dressed in italianate costumes; solitary, they tend to express contemplative or withdrawn states of mind, often reading, holding mandolines, or weaving wreaths of flowers. While the settings are generally landscapes, the figures confound conventional organization in terms of subject matter. At best, they inhabit the gray area at the edges of genre painting. Some of them, such as the Blonde Gasconne (Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; note her appearance in the backgrounds of figs. 5 and 6) are idealized and stylized virtually to the point of abstraction. Some are essentially portraits, such as the apocryphally titled Femme a la perle (Musee du Louvre, Paris). Still others, like the Young Girl Weaving a Wreath of Flowers (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) or La petite liseuse (Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur) float somewhere in between genres. The iconographic and formal sources for the figure paintings are equally complex; besides working from live models, Corot engaged with Renaissance as well as seventeenth-century Dutch prototypes, contemporary photography, and even his own figure paintings in various works. Corot was enigmatic in his statements about these pictures. Alfred Robaut, Corot's cataloguer and biographer, reports that Corot felt obligated to keep these works in an armoire, because "neither family nor friends would understand them." Constant Dutilleux, a student and friend, was evidently the first to happen upon the open armoire while visiting Corot (probably some time around the mid-1850s). At Dutilleux's encouragement, Corot began to show the figures, selectively, to friends; by the mid-1860s, he was selling them, again selectively, to an intimate circuit of Parisian dealers and collectors: Beugniet, Tempelaere, Brame, Cleophas, and Tedesco. Despite Dutilleux's accidental peek into Corot's armoire and the subsequent slow release of the figure paintings, they were and remained an essentially private part of Corot's work, and as such they did not contribute to his wider public reputation during his lifetime. For reasons which must remain speculative, the 1860s were for him a period of increased attention to the figure. The demand for these works by the dealers named above was certainly significant, if limited. Recurrent episodes of gout kept Corot from his usual travels, gave him more studio time than usual during this decade. It is also possible that he had become sensitive to the accusations of sameness in his "public" work, so the figure might have seemed like relatively unexplored territory. Given his lack of academic training in the figure, he might have felt compelled to develop his facility in this area if he expected to exhibit any publicly, which he eventually did in 1869: he sent the delightful La Liseuse (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) to the Salon of that year-the only figure of this type to be exhibited before his death. When the figures were finally revealed at the auction of his estate, they were and continue to be understood simply as an extension of his landscape painting -- embodiments of "nature" as women. While the conceptual linkage between women and nature was commonplace in nineteenth-century French culture, it is clear that this is only one rather limiting way to understand this aspect of Corot's production. Indeed, "nature" as it appears in Corot's landscapes is a complicated phenomenon, and it seems reasonable that a parallel complexity characterizes the women in Corot's paintings. It is therefore possible to consider Corot's attention to the figure as a response to the shift in the terms of the debate raging around "la peinture moderne" in the 1860s. As noted above, Corot himself had finally benefited from the rise in status of contemporary landscape painting as an expressly modern genre. But this was the period which witnessed the production of such vehemently modern, socially provocative figural paintings as Courbet's Les Demoiselles au bord de la Seine (1856-7, Petit Palais, Paris) and Sleep (1866, Petit Palais, Paris), and Manet's Olympia (1863, Musee d'Orsay, Paris). As a landscape painter, Corot was excluded from this debate at the Salon. Always an independent, but never a revolutionary, it seems likely that Corot's exploration of and response to a changing artistic climate might manifest themselves in his private work. What better way to articulate them than in his own versions of L'Atelier, perhaps even in a "real allegory" summing up thirty years of his artistic life? As with virtually all of Corot's work, his figure paintings and the Atelier group in particular pose daunting problems of dating and chronology. Very few of the figure paintings are dated, and only one of the Atelier pictures bears a date: the version in the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Lyon (fig. 7) is signed "COROT 1870". With the exception of the version at The National Gallery in Washington. D.C. (fig. 5), which was on the wall of Corot's living room at the time of his death, the rest had been sold or given away by 1875. The issue is further complicated by what we know of Corot's working methods: he would put pictures away, only to get them out and repaint them months or even years later. The Lyon and Musee d'Orsay versions (figs. 7 and 8) seem to have been executed in this manner, evident in the layered overpainting of the heads and hands in particular. The present work was dated by Robaut to 1868-70, but Germain Bazin places it anterior to the Lyon version (fig. 7), circa 1865, contemporary with the Orsay version (fig. 8). Both stylistic and thematic evidence support the early date for this painting, but not for the Orsay version. The overall light tonality and absence of strong contrasts evident in this version, in contrast to figs. 7 and 8, or to other firmly dated works from the period 1868-70 such as La Femme a la Perle or The Letter (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), argue for an earlier date. Here, the figure in particular displays a quality of even lightness, and indeed the action of light and shade is uncomplicated in comparison to the underlying coloristic structure. The darkest passage -- the front part of the torso and the sleeve of her left arm -- is not articulated as chiaroscuro in the traditional capacity of describing a volume through gradations of tonality. Instead, it plays a remarkable dual role in the formal sense, at once a shadow and a single plane, distinct from the skirt and the right arm. One can even distinguish the fiery red undercoat beneath, which further unifies the pictorial ensemble of the whole torso. The treatment of the figure's flesh, too, is predominantly a coloristic one. Irregular, floating planes of pinkish and slightly yellow flesh-tones hover over a slightly darker undercoat which emerges selectively and subtly as shadow under the chin, or at the nape of the neck below the ear. The skirt (fig. 2) also points to an earlier date stylistically. Perhaps the most dramatic part of the painting, her skirt, is an extraordinary translation of fabric to canvas. It is constructed of innumerable interlocking planes of carefully harmonized pink color-range which both obscure and reveal the dark undercoat beneath. This gives the skirt an underlying framework of volumes entirely its own -- wholly independent of the figure's anatomy. Corot then overlaid the surface with loaded, variegated final touches, reinforcing the structure with a remarkably economical surface calligraphy. Some close relatives in Corot's oeuvre would be the drapery in La Petite Liseuse (Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur) of 1855-65. The skirt is not made to take its place quietly and darkly around the legs of the figure, but rather is given a life of its own. Complementing the painterly skirt is yet another exploration of painted fabric: the landscape on the easel. In this version, the landscape (fig. 3) is quite complete and wholly visible, brushed in with the same range of colors and tonalities which one might expect to find in a "real" Corot landscape. It does not seem to be any specific painting, but bears a certain resemblance in massing and composition to Robaut no. 1204 (present whereabouts unknown), which Robaut dates to 1855-60. The landscape in this version does contain characteristics of Corot's style of the period: an open, horizontal composition, a relatively strong contrast between the sky and the land, and a suggestion of deep space near the center, constructed in terms of overlapping planes. It is not only the most highly finished of the landscapes represented in this group, but also probably the earliest. The landscapes in figures 4, 5, and 6 seem to be from the 1860s, while those in figs. 7 and 8 are clearly much later, of the dark, moody type of the late 1860s and 70s. It is worth noting here, too, that the landscapes in these two versions are framed, in contrast to the others. Bazin has pointed out a likely source for the figure in the very early Femme assise... (Private Collection, Paris) of 1826-28. Although inverted, the pose of the figure in this version retains the essentials of the early study: a vertical, insistently planar arrangement of the head, arm and mandoline. Figures 5 and 6 show further alteration of this same pose by redirecting the figures' gaze toward the landscape, which fractures the plane in favor of a complex spatial envelope. Corot seems to have abandoned this direct self-citation in figs. 7 and 8. The poses in these two versions relate only indirectly to much later figural works. If Corot were as self-conscious about his figures as Robaut's story would lead us to believe, and if the Atelier group comprised the kind of major project which it seems to, a certain pattern emerges across the entire group which betrays Corot's academic training. Traditional construction of a tableau in the grand tradition, whether a landscape or a history painting, was a prescribed, multi-stage process. The earliest steps involved the consultation and acknowledgement of historically validated examples, masterpieces of past art. A subsequent step was the integration of the artist's own etudes d'apres nature, studies of drapery, or of the live model. The final stage was the adjustment of motifs, expressions, and gestures that would crystallize the various parts into an individualized, unified whole. The process necessitates a gradual obscuring of each source in the service of this final coherent expression. It is therefore fruitful to interpret Corot's use of progressively later and increasingly transformed citations as an index to the chronology of the group and the evolution of its expression. This would mean that this version is the earliest (circa 1860), followed by the Baltimore version (fig. 4), which is most likely a sketch for figs. 5 and 6. These three then date to the period 1865-68. Fig. 8 would then fall with fig. 7, dating to circa 1870. If we accept this chronology, then the group can in fact be understood as a series, a metamorphosis of the figure from a model in the studio seen here to an absorbed viewer of a Corot landscape (figs. 4, 5, and 6), to a figure in a state of reverie (figs. 7 and 8). The figures in the final two versions -- one with a book held partially open and the other with a mandoline in a playable position -- most nearly approach the self-contained motivation and consonant expression that distinguishes a narrative from a "mere" figure. What Corot narrates is the experience of looking at his landscapes: a reverie, common to all the arts, which endures even after the music stops, the book is closed, and the gaze leaves the painting. This painting can therefore be understood as the first stage of a complex project of self-definition on Corot's part. Of all the versions, it pays the most direct homage to art of the past, most notably seventeenth-century Dutch interiors, as well as those of Chardin. The composition is of an elegant, straightforward simplicity which further distinguishes it from the rest of the group. The back wall is completely bare and strictly parallel to the picture plane, but this is relieved by a subtle series of interlocking rectangles, one of which re-frames the head and torso of the figure. With nothing in the surrounding space or on the wall to distract, attention remains focused on the foreground, a compact triangle of a woman, a mandoline, and a landscape painting. We have all the ingredients for something conventional and emblematic, but not the recipe: her head appears to turn slightly, as she gazes out of the picture at the viewer to declare awareness of herself and her surroundings. Her foot rubs lightly against the leg of the easel, and she touches the painting. The mandoline is pressed silently against her skirt, and the landscape before her is a real, signed Corot. Much more than a muse or an allegory, she is the first of Corot's figures whom he has truly brought to life and invited to leave her misty landscape to join him in the studio so that she, like us, can enjoy the sight of a Corot painting. This entry was written by David C. Ogawa, who is preparing a Ph. D. dissertation (Brown University) on Corot's figure painting and his Atelier group.
["WOLFGANGO AMADEO MOZART"] FROM YOUNG WOLFGANG TO HIS SISTER NANNERL., Bologna, 28 July 1770, 3 pages, 4to, plus an address page with wax seal, in ink on paper with watermark of running lion, small seal hold,light foxing, clean tear along central vertical fold. A DELIGHTFUL FAMILY LETTER OF IMPORTANT MUSICAL CONTENT: WOLFGANG AND LEOPOLD ON PLANS FOR MOZART'S OPERA "MITRIDATE, RE DI PONTO" [K.87]. In December 1769 the thirteen-year-old prodigy Wolfgang, in the company of his father Leopold, made an extended musical tour of Italy. Their itinerary included highly successful visits and concerts in "Verona [where they met Locatelli], Mantua, Cremona, Milan [where they made the acquaintance of Gluck's teacher, Sammartini], Naples, Florence and Rome. Bologna they reached by coach on July 20, and since it was an important center of musical activity, remained there until mid-October. Young Wolfgang, who had become an occasional pupil of Padre Martini, was elected a member of Bologna's prestigious Accademia Filarmonica after a rigorous examination. In Milan the Governor-General of Lombardy, Count Carl Joseph von Firmian, had been impressed by several arias Mozart had composed to poems from Metastasio's Demofoonte and Artaserse. These were performed at a musical soiree attended by a most distinguished audience, and Count Firmian exerted his influence to obtain the 14-year old composer a commission to compose an opera for performance in Milan. The scrittura [contract] was approved in March, and Mozart's patron Archbishop Colloredo granted his permission. The libretto, Mitridate, Re di Ponto, by Vittorio Amadeo Cignasanti, previously used for an opera by Gasparini, reached the Mozarts at Bologna, along with a list of the singers scheduled for the performance. In this highly interesting letter Leopold reports to his wife in Salzburg on the libretto and provides a detailed list of the characters, the singers assigned to each role, and their respective voice ranges. On a coach journey from Rome the previous month Leopold had suffered a minor but incapacitating foot injury when a horse reared and upset their carriage. Confined to his bed or a chair, he adds an amusing postscript alluding to his difficulties in managing the irrepressible prodigy in his care: "You can imagine what our household is like; you know what your Wolfgang is." [Leopold to Mrs. Mozart]: "You will have received my first letter from Bologna...I have now been nine days here and have not left my room, but have been either in bed or sitting up with my foot resting on a chair. But I hope that by the time you read this letter I shall have been out walking a few times...Well, this joke ["Spass"] will cost me 12 ducats. For it is no fun being ill in an inn. If I had taken in a 1000 ducats in Naples I could have got over this expense. All the same I still have more money than we need, and so we are content and praise God...We received yesterday the libretto and list of signers. The title of the opera is Mitridate, Re di Ponto, and the text is by a poet of Turin, Signor Vittorio Amadeo Cignasanti. It was performed there in 1767 [to music by Quirino Gasparini]. [role] Mitridate Re di Ponto Aspasia promessa sposa di Mitridate Sifare figlio di Miridate, amante di Aspasia Farnace primo figlia di Mitridate amante della medesima Aspasia Ismene figlia del Re dei Parti, amante di Farnace Arbate governatore di Ninfea Marzio Tribuno Romano. [singer] il Signor Guglielmo d'Ettore. Siga. Antonia Bernasconi.la. Donna Sige. Santorini. Soprano, primo uomo. Sige. Cicognani. contra alto. Sige. Varese. 2a. Donna. Soprano. Soprano Tenore." "We knew Sige. Bernasconi already. Sige. Santorini sang for us in Rome. Cicognani is here and is good friend of ours. D'Ettore is also here...We like the two portraits very much [Frau Mozart and Nannerl had apparently sent portraits to Leopold and Wolfgang]; but in order to appreciate them, one must not look at them closely, but from a distance. For pastels are not like miniatures. They are rather oily; but at a distance of much of the roughness disappears. Besides,f we are satisfied, that is enough ! [das ist genug]. Wolfgang thank you and his sister and all his good friends for the good wishes. We kiss you both 1000 times and I am your Old [ihr alter] MZT. [In a postscript Leopold adds:] You can imagine what our household is like, now that I cannot get about; you know what your Wolfgang is [du weisst was ihr Wolfgang ist]." [Wolfgang's postscript, to Nannerl]: "My dearest sister [Carrissima sorella mia], I must confess that I am frightfully pleased that you have sent us the portraits, which I like very much. I have no more news to send you, kiss my mother's hand a thousand times for me, and I kiss you 1000000 times, and remain your most humble servant Wolfgango Amadeo Mozart." The completed opera was premiered on 26 December 1770, under Wolfgang's direction. "It had a wonderful success. The audience became more and more vociferous with pleasure, applauded nearly every number, demanded one of them a second time, the opera was repeated twenty times, and the copyist received orders for five complete full scores besides any numbers of copies of separate arias"-Eric Blom, Mozart, pp.58-59. The letter published [in extract] in E. Anderson, Letters of Mozart and His Family, 1938, nos. 105 and 105a [the postscript]. PROVENANCE 1. Mr. Braus-Riggenbach, Basel, in 1938, according to Anderson. 2. Dr. Robert Amman, graphologist and collector [sale, Stargardt, Marburg, 16 November 1961, lot 1086].
