Paris – Continuing the concept of presenting the artist's first creative gesture, on 25 March, to coincide with the opening of the Salon du Dessin, Christie's will make a mark amid the abundance of events during the international drawing week in Paris, with a day that drawing enthusiasts will not want to miss. Following a highly anticipated first sale devoted to the Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Veil Picard, which notably includes a major rediscovery within Antoine Watteau's drawn oeuvre and the sale of La Bibliothèque poétique de Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller on 24 March (announcement forthcoming), Christie's will present its annual auction dedicated to works on paper. Bringing together around one hundred pieces dating from the 16th to the 20th century, this sale will offer a selection of rediscoveries and works of prestigious provenance by some of the greatest names of the Italian, German, and French schools, including Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Annibale Carracci, Guercino, Anne-Louis Girodet, Victor Hugo, and Eugène Delacroix.
Unpublished sheets from Benjamin Fillon's collection:
Last March, a drawing by Primaticcio from Benjamin Fillon's collection set a spectacular world record at Christie's. Prefect of Vendée in 1870, art historian and enlightened collector, Benjamin Fillon owned important drawings by old masters. Three unpublished sheets from his collection will be offered for sale on 25 March. These three drawings offer a rare opportunity to acquire works by major artists. Laurent de la Hyre's black chalk and grey wash drawing, Le Repos lors de la fuite en Egypte (Rest on the Flight into Egypt), is characteristic of the style of this major 17th-century French painter (€10,000-15,000). Blending black chalk, wash and white heightening, Group of the Bard's Daughters is one of Anne-Louis Girodet's major studies for the Ossian painting, the celebrated work commissioned for Napoleon's residence at the Château de Malmaison (€20,000–30,000). Finally, a preparatory study for one of the figures in the Carracci Gallery at the Palazzo Farnese in Rome represents an important rediscovery within the oeuvre of Annibale Carracci (€30,000–50,000). Underscoring its significance, the sheet is illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition that the Louvre is dedicating—until 2 February 2026—to “one of the greatest masterpieces of Western painting,” for which the museum has gathered “the most important group of preparatory drawings ever assembled.” Collectors will be all the more drawn to this rediscovery as the sheet most likely belonged to Francesco Angeloni, a friend of Annibale Carracci who, as early as 1642–1644, owned the largest group of preparatory drawings for the Farnese Gallery. Later, the sheet entered the collection of Pierre Mignard, First Painter to King Louis XIV, before passing through the hands of two of the greatest drawing collectors of the Enlightenment: Pierre Crozat and PierreJean Mariette.
From a 20th century German collection
A study by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino, depicting Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness stands as the highlight of a group of works from a German private collection. This group notably includes remarkable Italian and German drawings. In this religious subject—handled in a rather unusual way for the artist through a subtle blend of brown wash enriched with grey wash—the strength of the lines concentrated in the saint's gentle gaze contrasts strikingly with the tension of his kneeling body (€50,000–80,000). This group also gives pride of place to artists of the German Renaissance, notably with a delicate drawing by Virgil Solis (1514–1562). Two Swiss Landsknechts Making Music Under a Tree falls squarely within the great Nuremberg tradition and follows in the footsteps of Albrecht Dürer. The work showcases all the skills of Virgil Solis, who was equally a painter, engraver, illustrator, and designer of decorative motifs (€20,000–30,000).
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo: an unpublished drawing
From a major European collection whose dispersal will begin on 5 February in New York, the sale includes a group of seven works by the celebrated Venetian family of artists, the Tiepolos. Among them, a scene depicting The Flight into Egypt Surrounded by Angels by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo represents an important rediscovery. The work was previously known only through a black and white reproduction in the book by Adelheid M. Gealt and George Knox, which records 113 sheets from a vast cycle devoted to the New Testament. Here, Giovanni Domenico chooses an episode from the Holy Family's journey that is rarely illustrated: angels bringing bread and fruit to Joseph and Mary during their travels. After the artist's death in 1804, the drawings from this series were dispersed. In a fine state of preservation, the sheet offered here once belonged to the collection of Theodor de Wyzewa (1862–1917), the eminent art historian, Mozart biographer, and translator of the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine. It carries an estimate of €50,000–80,000.
Major figures of the 19th century: Victor Hugo and Eugène Delacroix
A towering figure of French literature, Victor Hugo was also one of the greatest draughtsmen of his time. This seascape showcases his masterful handling of wash. The alternation of vigorous, sweeping brushstrokes with the meticulous rendering of the boats lends a striking dramatic power to the ink drawing (€40,000–60,000). Another pillar of Romanticism and a close friend of Hugo, Eugène Delacroix is represented in the sale by a sketch in exceptionally fine condition, depicting a traditional Moroccan figure. The touches of colour already applied in several areas reveal the central importance of colour in the artist's Orientalist production (€20,000–30,000).
A selection of terracottas
The sale also brings together a group of sketches in terracotta and plaster that, like the drawings, reveal the artist's first creative conception. Among the lots, Apollo by Charles-François Lebœuf Nanteuil shows, in plaster, the sculptor's preparatory thinking for his final stonework now in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre.
A terracotta of the allegory of Agriculture, attributed to the circle of Dalou and probably intended for a monumental project, likewise highlights this spirit of artistic experimentation. These works belong to the broader context of 19thcentury “sculpturomania,” a period marked by the proliferation of public monuments, particularly throughout Paris.
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