The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 3, 2023

St. John the Evangelist

c. 1700–1702

Charles de La Fosse

(French, 1636–1716)

France, 18th century

Black, red, and white chalk

Support: Beige(1) laid paper

Sheet: 42 x 26.2 cm (16 9/16 x 10 5/16 in.)

Gift of Alida di Nardo in memory of her husband, Antonio di Nardo 1956.602

Catalogue raisonné: Gustin-Gomez D.24

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

This drawing was used primarily used by La Fosse to study the drapery that covers St. John's body. A nude drawing of the same figure is in Le Havre, France.

Description

This drawing is a study for a fresco in the Parisian church of Les Invalides. The structure's four pendentives are each decorated with images of the Four Evangelists, and the Cleveland sheet relates to the design for St. John. La Fosse developed his ideas in numerous preparatory studies before beginning the final painting. He portrayed the religious figures with power and exuberance, imbuing his decorative scheme with unprecedented vigor. Drawings by La Fosse are difficult to find in the United States, and this sheet is an exceptional example of the artist's trois crayons (three-chalk) technique of using black, red, and white chalk together. The chalks are subtly blended, creating the effect of billowing drapery rather than stiff linearity.

Inscriptions

Inscription

verso, center, in brown ink: 191 [underlined with flourish]; upper left, in graphite: Lot 353 [underlined] / Hotel Drouot / Vente Chardey / 14-17 Mai/77; lower left, in graphite: C. Delafosse [underlined]

Provenance
?-?
Unknown eighteenth-century? collector 1
?-by 1877
Rémi Valdemar Chardey [1813-1900], Le Havre 2
1877
(Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 14-17, 1877, no. 353) 3
?-1956
Mr. and Mrs. Antonio di Nardo, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

1 Inventory number with flourish on verso corresponds to similar numbers on other sheets by artist; see Vercier 2000, p. 150.
2 (On Chardey, see Vercier 2000, 136; Hedley 2001 notes that drawings by La Fosse with the Charday provenance are often in poor condition and show water damage. A pronounced water stain on the Cleveland sheet, visible in all previous photographs, was removed for this exhibition.
3 As "vingt-six beaux Dessins au crayon noir et à la sanguine: Composition, Têtes d'expression, Études de nus et de draperies." Inscription on verso notes sheet was part of this lot.
Citations
Drawing Before 1800. Exh. Cat. Appleton, WI: Wooster Art Center at Lawrence University, 1968. Mentioned: no. 23
Rosenberg, Pierre. French Master Drawings of the 17th & 18th Centuries in North American Collections. Translated by Catherine Johnston. Exh. Cat. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1972. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 67
Rosenberg, Pierre. "Dessins français du XVIIe et du XVIIIe siècle dans les collections américaines." L'Oeil, nos. 212-213 (August-September 1972): 10-15. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 12
Rubenism. Exh. Cat. Providence: Brown University, 1975. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 86-87, no. 23
"Drawings on Exhibition." Drawing 16, no. 6 (March - April 1995): 131-133. Mentioned: p. 131
Vercier, Paul. "Trois dessins de Charles de La Fosse pour la Chapelle du château de Versailles." Versalia 1, no. 3 (2000): 128-139. Mentioned: pp. 136-38; Reproduced: p. 136 (recto), 137 (verso)
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 98-99, pp. 287-88, no. 35; Reproduced: p. 99
Hedley, Jo. "Toward a New Century: Charles de La Fosse as a Draftsman." Master Drawings 39, no. 3 (Autumn 2001): 223-259. Mentioned: p. 248, p. 258, no. 58
Gustin-Gomez, Clémentine. Charles de La Fosse, 1636-1716: Catalogue Raisonné. Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 186, no. D.24
Exhibition history

Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).

Drawings Before 1800. Wriston Art Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI (organizer) (January 1-February 29, 1968).

French Master Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries in North American Collections. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (September 2-October 15, 1972); Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario M5T 1G4, Canada (organizer) (September 2-October 15, 1972); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (November 3-December 17, 1972); The New York Cultural Center, New York, NY (April 4-May 13, 1973).

Rubenism. David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI (January 30-February 23, 1975).

French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 2-May 16, 1982).

Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).

Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).

French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.602