drawing;
print study
- Museum number
- Oo,9.51
- Description
-
Design for ornament; two putti leaning forward to embrace each other, supported by scrolling acanthus leaves, with a sunflower above
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, heightened with white (partly oxidised), on grey-brown prepared paper
- Production date
- 1628-1632
- Dimensions
-
Height: 135 millimetres
-
Width: 172 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This drawing provides an insight into the printmaking practices that Van Dyck engaged with through a network of print publishers in Antwerp. The design of two putti leaning towards each other with the a sunflower and acanthus leaves in the centre did not have a specific purpose but was instead an ornamental design. It subsequently served as the basis for a print to be engraved by Lucas Vostermann, for an impression in the BM see R,2.61. Comparison of the drawing and the print shows the engraver simplified Van Dyck’s free handling of wash into a more linear approach that was demanded of the printmaking medium but which also stripped it of some of its energy.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1978, BM, Gainsborough and Reynolds in the BM, no 277
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Oo,9.51
