Drawing of the Day: Punchinello with Dumpling or Fritter, c. 1796-1770

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, this drawing of pen and brown ink has been accented with a sepia wash.  Beneath this, traces of the original sketch of pencil and black chalk can be seen.  

Dating to about 1796-1770, this is the work of a member of  the Circle of famed Italian artist  Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid).  Entitled "Punchinello with Dumpling or Fritter."  I think that's a lovely idea.

Tiepolo and his followers often depicted Punchinello in various situations, often showing multiple Punchinellos or whole families of them at a time.

Drawing of the Day: Simeon Solomon's "In the Temple of Venus," 1865

In the Temple of Venus
Simeon Solomon, c. 1865
The Victoria & Albert Museum

A head-and-shoulders portrait, this watercolor of a woman with ginger hair in a green gown immediately puts one in mind of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, however, the background of the piece with its loosely-drawn statuette and classical columns, is a far cry from the almost-photographic detail inherent in the work of Pre-Raphaelite artists.

This is the work of Simeon Solomon (1840-1905).  Solomon had long bemoaned that he never had been given a classical education and had no understanding of Latin and Greek.  He formed close friendships with the poet Algernon Swinburne, the Eton schoolmaster Oscar Browning, and the Oxford don Walter Pater, the great critic of the Italian Renaissance--thereby giving himself a chance to become deeply familiar with classical subjects.  

Simeon titled this piece, "In the Temple of Venus."  It's part of a series he painted during the middle part if the 1860s which subtly focussed on gay and lesbian themes, a study for which there was no name at the time.  

Drawing of the Day: The Yellow-Breasted Chat and the Turk's Cap Lily, c. 1765

The Yellow-Breasted Chat and The Turk's Cap Lily, c. 1765
Mark Catesby
Purchased by King George III
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

From the Royal Collection, we have this handsome watercolor by Mark Catesby (1682-1749). Catesby created the painting of a small bird (known as a Yellow-Breasted Chat) with a Turk’s Cap Lily. To give emphasis to the bird, Catesby has only faintly sketched-in the plant with it’s maple-shaped leaves. 

The painting was created for one Thomas Cadell from whom it was purchased by King George III in 1768.

Drawing of the Day: Homage to the Queen, 1953

Homage to the Queen
Design for the Coronation Ballet
Oliver Messel, 1953
The Victoria & Albert Museum

“Homage to the Queen” was choreographed by Frederick Ashton as the Sadler's Wells Ballet tribute for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June, 1953. The production was performed at the Royal Opera House. We can tell from production notes which were made at the time that it appears that the production designer, Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel, (1904 - 1978 ) conceived the ballet opening with an extravagant procession, incorporating both English folk and mythological figures which would close with an Apotheosis showing Elizabeth I as Queen of the Past, handing the Imperial orb to Elizabeth II as Queen of the Present. At the end of the opening, the image of the Queen would be left, as Messel put it, “surrounded with all the virtues and gifts.”

Messel, one of Britain’s leading theatrical designers of the 1930s through 1950s, envisioned this spectacle to be something like a 17th century Jacobean court masque in the manner of Inigo Jones and produced “lavish, fantastical designs” which managers of the ballet noted, “would have cost more than his sets and costumes for the main ballet.” Because of the potential expense, the stage procession of the homage was reduced to a simple entry for the queens of the four elements - Earth, Water, Fire and Air - and their attendant. Messel still got his way—partially. After the ballet, an apotheosis is performed wherein the spirit of the first Elizabeth passes the orb to the second. Here we see one of the storyboard images which Messel produced for his original concept of the homage ballet. This image shows the lion and the unicorn of the Royal arms. The sketch shows the two figures, dancing, facing each other, and carrying flowers which were to be presented to the Queen.

Lord Snowdon, onetime husband of Princess Margaret, and Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatrical designs and other artifacts. According to the V&A, “The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan. The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005.”

Masterpiece of the Week: The Russell Square Puppet Show, 1827

Click on image to enlarge
View of Russell Square with a Puppet Show
Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, 1827
The British Museum

This drawing of pen and brown wash on paper dates to 1827 and is the work of Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. The scene gives us a view of Russell Square with the statue of the Duke of Bedford prominent on the left. 

In the square, a crowd has gathered to watch a puppet show. The bottler draws attention to the show by beating a large drum. His efforts clearly work because we see that a mother will two children are about to join the crowd.

This drawing was once part of the collection of Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford. It gives us a rare topographical representation of a part of London which has changed considerably over time.

Drawing of the Day: Children Watching a Puppet Show

Children Watching A Puppet Show
Stefano della Bella
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection 
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Oddly enough, here’s another drawing which I’ve not seen before. This one is by an Italian artist with a sing-song name, Stefano della Bella (1610-1664). The work of black chalk, pen and ink was purchased by King George III from Consul Joseph Smith in 1762, and depicts a group of children watching a puppet show. A young mother holds her child on her lap so that the baby can see the show, too.

I am familiar with a similar drawing by Della Bella which is housed at the British Museum. While the subjects are similar, the example in the British Museum includes a bagpiper accompanying the show.

Given the age of the piece, the paper has deteriorated a bit and the other sketches on the verso are visible.

Obviously, the drawing is incomplete, and, is clearly a study for another work—perhaps a painting.

Drawing of the Day: Old Cottages at East Bergholt, 1940

Old Cottages at East Bergholt
Algernon Newton, 1940
The Victoria & Albert Musuem

This 1930 charcoal drawing is part of the “Recording Britain” initiative of World War II which served to capture the changing face of the British landscape.

The scene depicts East Bergholt, John Constable's home—an almost hallowed spot for landscape painter Algernon Newton (1880-1968). Newton had a particular affinity for “Constable Country.” While others in the Recording Britain program attempted to mask the encroaching passage of time on the landscape, Newton embraced it and made sure not to conceal modern marks such as the telephone poles and wires which we see to the left of the cottage.

Drawing of the Day: Costume Design for 'Babes in the Wood,' 1907

Costume Design
Attilio Comelli
1907
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here we see a costume design by Attilio Comelli for the character of the Jester in the 1907-1908 play Babes in the Wood which ran at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.  This production featured characters from the legend of Robin Hood.

In this production, the Jester was played by a woman, so, the drawing for the costume design depicts a female figure wearing a red, orange and purple jester's outfit.

The drawing was finished in 1907 prior to the debut of the production.

Drawing of the Day: Fairies Rescuing a Bird, 1920-1925

Click on image to enlarge.
"Fairies Rescuing a Bird"
Margaret Tempest, 1920-1925
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Margaret Tempest (1892-1982), the celebrated English illustrator, began her career in the 1920s and became known as the creator of the beloved children’s book characters “Little Grey Rabbit” and “Fuzzypeg the Hedgehog.” The stories were written by Alison Uttley with illustrations by Margaret Tempest whose drawings graved the first thirty stories from 1929 until 1970.

Uttley and Tempest often debated between themselves about which of them could take the most credit for the success of the characters. However, it wasn’t the usual artistic struggle. In fact, each credited the other for the creation of the characters who had become household names.

Most agree, however, that the stories were given a special kind of life because of Tempest’s subtle watercolor drawings.

Here’s an interesting example of Margaret Tempest’s delicate work. In this watercolor, pen and ink drawing, we see fairies attempting to rescue a bird from a basket work cage. The artist’s gentle hand shows in the tones of the fairies’ wings and her ability to capture a moment of effort makes the painting seem as if we have been given a glance into a new world.

The drawing dates between 1920 and 1925. 

Drawing of the Day: Five Grotesque Heads, 1646

Five Grotesque Heads
Wenceslaus Hollar
England, 1646
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection 
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Born in Prague, Bohemian etcher Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) spent much of his life in England. There, he attracted the attention of wealthy patrons and noblemen, including Thomas Howard 21st Earl of Arundel and the Royal Court. During the English Civil War, his income naturally suffered, but he created some of the most gripping records of the war.

This study by Hollar shows his penchant for the theatrical and grotesque. Created in 1646, the original drawing for the published etching depicts of five men. An older man who is clean-shaven is crowned with a wreath of oak leaves. Another man has his head tilted back and opens his mouth in a horrid yawn. A bald man is seen in the lower background. On the right, a laughing man is depicted and the composition is balanced by the profile of a man with a headband.

This sort of grotesquerie was quite in vogue in the early Seventeenth Century. Grotesque figures were the subjects of many a medium from porcelain to architecture. Hollar shows us his masterful hand and ability to show both motion and emotion while also satiating the taste for the horrible which was prevalent in arts of the era.

Drawing of the Day: Alexander the Circus Pony, 1940-60

Sketch from "Alexander the Circus Pony,"
Phyllis Ginger, 1940-60
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Well, look, it’s Alexander the Circus Pony!  I’m unfamiliar with Alexander the Circus Pony, but if I were a pony I would want that to be my name.

This drawing is by Phyllis Ginger (1907-2005) and was created for the children's story, “Alexander, the Circus Pony.”  This book was Miss Ginger’s primary commission from Puffin books in which the entire book, story and illustrations were her own exclusive creation. Published in 1943, the book was quite popular in Britain and has been reprinted many times.

Here, we can see Ginger’s trademark bright and brilliant watercolor style. Previously, Ginger had been best known as topographical watercolor artist, who donated her talents to the Pilgrim Trust’s World War II “Recording Britain” project.  Throughout her early career, Ginger longed to be an illustrator.  She finally achieved her dream with “Alexander” and, then, illustrated another children's story featuring a horse a few years later, “The Mushroom Pony,” which was written by Joan Lamburn.

A Preliminary Sketch for "Alexander"

Drawing of the Day: The Corn Rose, 1680

Page from the Florilegium of Alexander Marshal
c. 1680
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

The delicate drawing, dating to 1680, is the work of Alexander Marshal (c. 1620-82). Marshal was part of a league of “gentlemen gardeners” living in London in the Seventeenth Century. These gents looked to the cultivation of rare and exotic plants to learn about the workings of the natural world. They reveled, especially, in those plants which had been imported from the Near East and America at the start of the Seventeenth Century.

Marshal spent thirty years compiling a “florilegium” (flower book) which, in the end, contained 154 folios recording interesting and rare plants growing in the English gardens of his friends. Curiously, Marshal didn’t consider himself an artist, but his talent is evident. His florilegium is the only English flower book from the Seventeenth Century that survives. He never intended the folios to be sold or published, but rather, produced the book for the enjoyment and education of his friends.

King George IV was presented with the florilegium by an unknown party in the 1820s.

This leaf from the book features watercolors of three plants including: the Red Poppy (or Corn Rose), the Cockle and a Jacob's Ladder. The flowers are identified on the reverse.

Reverse
Alexander Marshal, 1680
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Drawing of the Day: The Freak's Revenge, 1907

Fred Conquest in costume
Performing "The Freak's Revenge" from "For Ever."
George Cooke, 1907
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This caricature of Edwardian Music Hall performer Fred Conquest depicts the performer starring in “The Freak’s Revenge” at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of April 22, 1907.

This drawing is one of the collection of many superb caricatures of Edwardian music hall performers that were drawn by the artist George Cooke who would later compile these sketches in a series of albums which now reside at the V&A.

Fred Conquest (1870-1941) made his first pantomime appearance at the age of four at the Grecian Theatre in London when the venue was still managed by his father, George Conquest.  As an adult, Conquest made his first appearance at the Surrey Theatre in 1889 and achieved his most profound success in his father’s famous role of “Zacky the Monkey” in “For Ever.   In 1901, Conquest, managed the Surrey Theatre briefly upon the death of his father.  There, he continued to appear in pantomime and music hall sketches.

“For Ever” also known as “The Freak’s Revenge” was the story of the revenge of a side show performer, Zacky, who was billed as a “man-monkey.”  The “freak” wished to exact revenge upon the captain who ran away with his wife and daughter. The show’s climax was recorded as “the struggle to death” between the man-monkey and the savage gorilla, which he had mistakenly sent into the room of his own daughter.

Cooke, using pen, ink and wash, shows Conquest full-length, standing dressed in a red shirt and black trousers with the wild mane of hair and long sideburns which he wore in the role.  This image is taken from the show’s gripping climax as the man-monkey is looking madly at a bottle of brandy which he is clutching with both hands.

The performance was billed as “The most Original and Sensational Sketch now on the Variety Stage” and audiences were enticed to “See the Struggle to Death between the Man-Monkey and the Gorilla.”

Drawing of the Day: Simeon Solomon's "In the Temple of Venus," 1865

In the Temple of Venus
Simeon Solomon, c. 1865
The Victoria & Albert Museum

A head-and-shoulders portrait, this watercolor of a woman with ginger hair in a green gown immediately puts one in mind of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, however, the background of the piece with its loosely-drawn statuette and classical columns, is a far cry from the almost-photographic detail inherent in the work of Pre-Raphaelite artists.

This is the work of Simeon Solomon (1840-1905).  Solomon had long bemoaned that he never had been given a classical education and had no understanding of Latin and Greek.  He formed close friendships with the poet Algernon Swinburne, the Eton schoolmaster Oscar Browning, and the Oxford don Walter Pater, the great critic of the Italian Renaissance--thereby giving himself a chance to become deeply familiar with classical subjects.  

Simeon titled this piece, "In the Temple of Venus."  It's part of a series he painted during the middle part if the 1860s which subtly focussed on gay and lesbian themes, a study for which there was no name at the time.  

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: Familiarity Breeds Contempt, c. 1880

"Familiarity Breeds Contempt"
Joseph Clark, Nineteenth Century
Watercolor study for a larger composition.
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Ah, Joseph Clark…his name may not be immediately familiar to you, but I bet you’ve seen a print of at least one of his paintings (I assume this because, if you’re on this web site, you have some familiarity with antiques and art). Clark (1834-1926) painted many, many, many sentimental oil paintings of children, which were hungrily gobbled up by the Victorian public who had a genuine fascination with images of healthy children (mortality rate and all that, what). Clark may have been popular with the public, but, I suspect that his frequent showings at the Royal Academy were met with a few tongue clucks of “too sentimental.”

Clark was a very precise painter and, before starting any canvas, made series after series of studies, sketches and watercolor tests of the composition before working in oils. You may see that his paintings often depict very similar-looking subjects. He typically used his own family members and pets as models.

Here’s one of his many pre-painting sketches. This watercolor shows a mother and her daughter in the kitchen of their cottage. They appear to be witnessing an awkward encounter between a chicken and a curious kitten. The drawing is undated. However, it has been given an appropriate title: “Familiarity Breeds Contempt.” 

Drawing of the Day: Windsor Castle: The King's Bedroom (west elevation), 1827

Design for the Bath at the King's Bedroom, Windsor Castle
More & Seddon, 1827
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection

Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

This drawing was returned to the Royal Collection when Queen Elizabeth II purchased it at an auction in 1971. The drawing was created by the Office of Morel & Seddon, decorators who were contracted to redecorate Windsor Castle in 1827 during the reign of King George IV.

The watercolor depicts a view of an alcove with a bath cabinet in the center. The recess is framed by curtains and backed with a mirror. It was part of the new private suite which King George IV has envisioned for himself in the central part of the east front of the castle. This part of the suite was to be hidden behind a cabinet with doors of pietra dura.

The blue silk hangings were based on some made by Grand Frères of Lyons in 1823 for the Salon des Princes at the château of Saint-Cloud. Despite the room’s handsome décor, King George IV didn’t like the finished product. He found the room unsuitable and moved to an adjacent room in 1829. The suite, however, was used by Queen Victoria and, it was in the bedroom in which Prince Albert died in 1861. 

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: A Young Professor, Nineteenth Century

Chromolithograph after an unknown artist
Nineteenth Century
The George Speaight Archive at
The Victoria & Albert Museum

I very much like this Nineteenth Century print of a beautiful drawing of a budding Punch professor. A young boy with a puppet booth carries a drum on his back. In front of him he walks his puppet, a marionette figure of Mr. Punch.

What’s interesting about this is that by the Nineteenth Century, most Punchinellos were glove puppets which were performed in the Victorian style fit-up which first comes to mind when we think of Punch & Judy. In fact, marionette Punch and Judy shows were a century out of vogue in the U.K. So, this was a sort of nod to the antique and that makes it all the more charming.

Of course, this is from the George Speaight Archive at the V&A.

The reverse shows a page from an album.

Drawing of the Day: Punchinello with Dumpling or Fritter, c. 1796-1770

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, this drawing of pen and brown ink has been accented with a sepia wash.  Beneath this, traces of the original sketch of pencil and black chalk can be seen.  

Dating to about 1796-1770, this is the work of a member of  the Circle of famed Italian artist  Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid).  Entitled "Punchinello with Dumpling or Fritter."  I think that's a lovely idea.

Tiepolo and his followers often depicted Punchinello in various situations, often showing multiple Punchinellos or whole families of them at a time.

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: Guardi's "A Punch & Judy Show," 1735

The Frick Collection, New York

From the world famous Frick Collection in New York, we have this sepia ink drawing, dating to 1735, by Italian artist Paolo Guardi.

Though given the anglicized title, "A Punch & Judy Show," the drawing actually depicts a performance of a Pulcinella show--Italian's Italian puppet forebear.

The Frick Collection and Reference Library includes hundreds of important antiques and works of art.  A visit to their web site, and, if in the area to the collections themselves is a must.

Drawing of the Day: Beatrice Lillie in Auntie Mame, 1958

Beatrice Lillie as Auntie Mame
1958
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The famed Beatrice Lillie (1894-1989) was billed as "the funniest woman in the world." Lillie made her West End debut in 1914 and went on to become a huge star in revues, on radio, in television, films, and one-woman shows. Her charm, wit, and liveliness made her an international sensation.

This caricature depicts Lillie in the title role of Auntie Mame by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The show played at Oxford New Theatre in August of 1958.

Gilbert Sommerlad (1904-1976), a rehearsal pianist and orchestral violinist for over forty years often sketched the stars on stage when he wasn’t needed in the orchestra pit. This drawing of Lillie is his handiwork. Over the decades, thankfully, Sommerlad complied his sketches in a series of albums, preserving them for posterity.