Sketchbook, Italy
Reynolds visited Italy for three years while in his twenties and seized the opportunity to study works from antiquity to the more recent Baroque era. As he explored churches and collections, Reynolds filled many sketchbooks with notes and drawings. This example records paintings, sculpture, and architecture visited in Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, and Turin. It was made by using twine to secure sheets of paper into a vellum binding and could have been purchased from a stationer or made by the artist himself. The open pages represent Bernini’s famous colonnade around St. Peter’s Square in Rome opposite a rough sketch of a bearded man framed by a rustic pergola.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sketchbook, Italy
- Artist: Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, Plympton 1723–1792 London)
- Date: 1750–52
- Medium: Graphite, black chalk, pen and brown ink
- Dimensions: binding: 7 11/16 x 5 1/4 x 11/16 in. (19.5 x 13.4 x 1.8 cm)
pages: 7 3/8 x 5 1/8 in. (18.8 x 13 cm) - Classification: Sketchbooks
- Credit Line: Gift of William A. White, 1918
- Object Number: 18.121(1–182)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Sir Joshua Reynolds
1750–52
Multiple artists/makers
1829
Sir Joshua Reynolds
after 1779
Sir Joshua Reynolds
18th century
Multiple artists/makers
1798
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