The "Semaine du Dessin" in Paris galleries (2)

1. Nicolaus Ritter Junior (1777-1797/1817?)
Selfportrait, 1793
Black chalk - 30.9 x 23.8 cm
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Photo: Den Otter Fine Art

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21/3/24 - Art market - Paris - The enigmatic but impressive self-portrait by Nicolaus Ritter Junior (ill. 1) will take pride of place for a few more days in Jonathan den Otter’s fine exhibition at Benjamin Peronnet on rue de Louvois, but will soon be on its way to Rotterdam and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, where it was quickly acquired from the young dealer, who of course chose it as the cover for his latest catalogue. The son of miniaturist George Nicolaus Ritter, the artist remains little known despite his premature talent: here he is depicted aged sixteen in 1793. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam holds a second self-portrait painted in the same year, as well as two academies from 1795 and 1796, painted while he was studying at the Stadstekenacademie in Amsterdam, which he left the following year, perhaps for Russia: nothing more is known of him after that, but Jonathan den Otter offers a second drawing by this highly mysterious artist. A rare sheet by Gérard de Lairesse (ill. 2) then testifies to a less happy moment in Dutch-French relations, as it shows King Louis XIV with a fleur-de-lys chest on the right, while Europe suffers from the young monarch’s bellicose tendencies before being liberated by the virtuous action of William of Orange, a national hero celebrated in a work published in 1675 by Petrus Valkenier, whose engraved frontispiece-https://www. rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-1907-4584] by Coenraet Decker uses and adapts this unpublished drawing, allowing Lairesse to be credited with the work, as Jasper Hillegers explains in his notice.

2. Gérard de Lairesse (1640-1711)
Europe Freed from the Nets of War by William of Orange
Pen and brown ink - 26.4 x 18.1 cm
Rotterdam, Den Otter Fine Art
Photo: Den Otter Fine Art

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3. Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867)
Œuvre complète de Jacques Barozzi de Vignole
Pen and grey ink, watercolour - 32.5 x 24.5 cm
Rotterdam, Den Otter Fine Art
Photo: Den Otter Fine Art

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Let’s stay in France with a final drawing for a frontispiece, by Hippolyte Lebas, in preparation for L’Œuvre complète de Jacques Barozzi de Vignole which Percier’s young pupil began to publish - with his friend François Debret - from 1815. This large sheet in shimmering colours (ill. 3) shows how the architect was able to adapt the Renaissance ornamental repertoire to neoclassical tastes. In any case, don’t delay in admiring them, as the exhibition closes on Sunday! Just a stone’s throw away, two other young dealers are also benefiting from the support of a Parisian gallery owner who has been established on rue de la Paix for ten years: Alexis Bordes, who is also offering a selection of drawings - as well as paintings, including the Manet we…