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| Jean Grandjean View of Rome from the Capitoline Hill ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
Jean Grandjean was a Dutch artist descended from French Huguenot refugees, one of six children born to an Amsterdam glove-maker. This son showed an early gift, producing drawings that the father exhibited in his shop windows. There is evidence that young Jean Grandjean apprenticed with an enameler and a wallpaper-supplier while also finding instruction with local artists. Impressed by his natural abilities and hard work, two cultivated amateurs of the arts arranged for him to travel to Rome in 1779. All the drawings shown here were made by Grandjean in Rome between the summer of his arrival and his sudden death two years later at the age of 29.
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| attributed to Jean Grandjean Baths of Caracalla ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Colosseum ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Colosseum 1781 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Colosseum vaulting ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
Grandjean made several beautifully-finished drawings of antique statues on public display in the Rome of the 1770s and 80s. Many of those represented below could then be found either in the Capitoline Museum or at the Villa Borghese. Only a couple of decades after Grandjean drew them in Rome, the Borghese marbles would be permanently removed to Paris by Napoleon.
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| Jean Grandjean Capitoline Antinous shown with Danish scholar Andreas Christian Hviid 1780 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Capitoline Antinous part of Cardinal Albani's collection, bought for the Museum by Pope Clement XII 1781 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Borghese Gladiator often depicted, but rarely depicted frontally and foreshortened 1779 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Cupid and Psyche - Capitoline Museum crowd favorite of the 18th century, now less admired ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Cupid bending bow - Capitoline Museum ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Borghese Faun, or, Faun with Pipes now at the Louvre 1780 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Ludovisi Mars then in the Ludovisi collection, now at Museo Nazionale Romano ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Statue of Pollux from Castor and Pollux group then owned by Queen Christina of Sweden (in Rome), now at the Prado ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| Jean Grandjean Antique statues of putti ca. 1779-81 drawing Rijksmuseum |
I am grateful to the Rijksmuseum for making these excellent reproductions available.