Gaetano Rossi Napoletano
Wicar entered the Paris studio of Jacques Louis David in 1781 and accompanied his master to Rome in 1784. He remained in Italy for most of his life, achieving success as a painter of portraits and history subjects in the manner of David and assembling three successive collections of significant Italian drawings. This sheet featuring a Neapolitan sitter comes from a sketchbook of informal portraits. Appointed by Joseph Bonaparte as director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples in 1806, Wicar spent three or four years in the southern Italian city. The spare style of the drawing recalls the directness of the portraits David made while imprisoned after the fall of Robespierre, the radical Jacobin leader of the Revolution.
Artwork Details
- Title: Gaetano Rossi Napoletano
- Artist: Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar (French, Lille 1762–1834 Rome)
- Date: n.d.
- Medium: Conté crayon
- Dimensions: 9 13/16 x 7 13/16 in. (25 x 19.8 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Gift of Alexander B.V. Johnson and Roberta J.M. Olson, 2002
- Object Number: 2002.540.3
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar
ca. 1782–92
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n.d.
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