View of Rome (recto); A Woman's Head In Profile (verso)

ca. 1790–91

Not on view

Born in Italy to a French father and an Italian mother, Gérard studied in Paris with Jacques Louis David. After the death of his father in 1790, he returned to Rome with his family, where he stayed until 1791. It was during this period that he must have made this drawing which exhibits a strong debt to the Italian landscapes of his master.

Sketched first in black chalk, presumably en plein air, and then supplemented with gray wash, the sheet uses the strong contrasts of sun and shadow to meld the varied architecture into a collage of geometric forms.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: View of Rome (recto); A Woman's Head In Profile (verso)
Artist: baron François Gérard (French, Rome 1770–1837 Paris)
Date: ca. 1790–91
Medium: Black chalk, brush and gray wash (recto); pen and iron gall ink (verso)
Dimensions: 8 3/8 × 12 15/16 in. (21.3 × 32.8 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, Stephen A. Geiger Gift, 2021
Object Number: 2021.255a, b
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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baron François Gérard
1808

Guitar, Jean-Baptiste Voboam French, Spruce, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, ivory, ebony, French — Guitar
attributed to Jean-Baptiste Voboam
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Approach to a Mountain Village with Horsemen on the Road, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink, traces of black chalk; mounted on an album page — Approach to a Mountain Village with Horsemen on the Road
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Portrait of Napoleon I, baron François Gérard French, Wool, silk, silver-gilt thread (26-28 warps per inch, 10-12 per cm.); gilded pine frame, French, Paris — Portrait of Napoleon I
Multiple artists/makers
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Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French — Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century

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