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| attributed to Pieter de Witte or to Gerrit van Battum Landscape ca. 1660 drawing British Museum |
The portrait painter, writer, and art collector Jonathan Richardson Senior (1667-1745) left a manuscript note to accompany the landscape above in the days when he owned it. "For this drawing I have more than once been offered 25 guineas, but refused it, chiefly because I would not suffer so capital a drawing to go out of my collection in my lifetime." During Richardson's lifetime this work was attributed to Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610), an influential German artist working in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century. It is now believed to have been created about fifty years after Elsheimer's death by one or another of his conscientious imitators. Curators at the British Museum discuss the paradox of a work of art that remains as beautiful as it ever was, but that greatly lost prestige after being reassigned.
More of the idiosyncratic lovelies from the Richardson collection appear below.
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| Claude Lorrain Moses and the Burning Bush 1660 drawing British Museum |
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| François Boucher Young woman seen from behind 18th century drawing British Museum |
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| Peter Oliver Five heads 17th century drawing British Museum |
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| Paul Bril Forum of Trajan, Rome 1603 drawing British Museum |
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| Agostino Tassi Stage set 17th century drawing British Museum |
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| Giovanni Andrea Mastelletta Scene of Earthquake 17th century drawing British Museum |
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| Vincenzo Mariotti Chapel of St Ignatius in the Church of the Gesù, Rome 1697 engraving British Museum |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Expulsion from Eden mid-17th century wash drawing British Museum |
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| Pier Francesco Mola St Catherine disputing in a temple mid-17th century wash drawing British Museum |
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| Paolo Anesi Landscape with fountain outside a city ca. 1740-65 drawing British Museum |
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| Herman van Swanevelt Satyr family in a landscape ca. 1634 drawing British Museum |
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| Nicolas Poussin Nymph climbing onto the shoulders of a Satyr 1620s drawing British Museum |
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| Stefano della Bella Interior of a barn ca. 1625-65 drawing British Museum |
I am grateful to the British Museum for making these images available.