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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.8.33
People
John Singer Sargent, American (Florence, Italy 1856 - 1925 London, England)
Title
Sketch of the Base of Cellini's "Perseus," Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1902-1906
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/310214

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Graphite on beige wove paper
Dimensions
29.1 x 22.9 cm (11 7/16 x 9 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: right edge at center, in artist's hand: highest lights / left pine apple /and / golden horizontal / lights on lowest / mouldings / and / thigh of boy / in niche

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
To the artist's sisters, Violet (Mrs. Francis) Ormond and Emily Sargent, at his death, 1925; gift of Mrs. Ormond to the Fogg Art Museum, 1937.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond
Accession Year
1937
Object Number
1937.8.33
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Commentary
This drawing relates to many studies of Cellini's "Perseus" that Sargent completed c. 1909-10. See four other Fogg drawings (1937.8.34, 1937.8.35, 1937.8.36, 1937.8.112), four small graphite studies in the Yale Art Gallery (1931.45), a watercolor in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, a watercolor in a private collection reproduced in "The Sargent Exhibition," Royal Academy (1926), p. 106, and an oil on canvas in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. A related drawing of the sculpture and the Loggia dei Lanzi that may have come from the same sketchbook as this drawing is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (50.130.131; see Herdrich/Weinberg 2000). See also Sargent's study of Giambologna's "Rape of the Sabine Women," a second sculpture in the Loggia dei Lanzi the artist sketched (Fogg drawing 1937.8.9).Sargent returned to the theme of Perseus in the Museum of Fine Arts mural project, see "Perseus on Pegasus Slaying Medusa" (1921-25), a panel over the stairway.

Publication History

  • Stephanie Herdrich and Helen Barbara Weinberg, American Drawings and Watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: John Singer Sargent, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 2000), pp. 309-310, under no. 284
  • Bruce Robertson, ed., Sargent and Italy, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Princeton University Press (Los Angeles, CA and Princeton, NJ, 2002), p. 110, n. 46; p. 132, n. 16
  • Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2012), fig. 110, p. 239

Exhibition History

  • Under Cover: Artists' Sketchbooks, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2006 - 10/22/2006
  • HAA 10 Survey Course: The Western Tradition, Art Since the Renaissance, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/08/2008 - 04/06/2008
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 08 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/23/2008 - 11/16/2008
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 09 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/16/2009 - 11/08/2009

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu