Trained as a stage designer and architect, Desprez was a talented watercolorist. He collaborated with Francesco Piranesi—the son of the more celebrated printmaker Giovanni Piranesi (1720–1778)—by drawing views of Naples, Rome, and Pompeii that Piranesi etched. Desprez then completed the prints with watercolor. The scene of tourists enjoying the ruins at Pompeii demonstrates how interest in antiquity had been augmented by the archaeological excavations at Herculaneum (1737) and Pompeii (1748). The discovery of homes, furnishings, and personal artifacts revealed the domestic aspects of ancient life.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed in black ink on decorative margin, lower margin:Desprez

Provenance

Hill-Stone, New York, NY

Exhibition history

The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/26/01-10/28/01. "Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19th-Century French Prints".

The Cleveland Museum of Art (09/ 12/2012 - 01/07/2013 Getty Villa Malibu, CA; 02/24/2013 - 07/07/2013 Cleveland Museum of Art); "The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection"

Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001).

The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-July 7, 2013).