The Cathedral at Trani

1778

Louis-Jean Desprez

Associated Names
Louis-Jean Desprez

Artist, French, 1743 - 1804

The image shows a town square with a grand church featuring a tall bell tower. The church has a detailed façade with a rose window and arched windows. In the background, there are arched buildings and trees. The brushstrokes are detailed, and the color palette is subdued with beige, brown, gray, and hints of green. People are seen engaging in various activities in the square. In the distance, ship masts are visible over a low wall, indicating the presence of a harbor.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and gray-black ink and watercolor over graphite on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 21.5 x 35.2 cm (8 7/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
    support: 31.2 x 44.8 cm (12 5/16 x 17 5/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1963.15.6

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Richard Owen, Paris; Samuel H. Kress 1935; gift 1963 to the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1972

  • French Master Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries in North American Collections. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; and New York Cultural Center, 1972, no. 42, pl. 120 (Pierre Rosenberg).

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 236-238, 290, no. 103a (color).

Bibliography

1810

  • possibly M. Bénard. Cabinet de M. Paignon Dijonval, état détaillé et raisonné des dessins et estampes dont il est composé.... Paris, 1810: under no. 4058 (61 watercolor landscapes and views by Desprez).

1939

  • Wollin, Nils G. Desprez en Suède. Stockholm, 1939: 355, no. 14.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 349, dK386, fig.320.

1995

  • Lamers, Petra. Il viaggio nel sud dell'Abbé de Saint-Non. Il "Voyage pittoresque à Naples et en Sicile": La genesi, i disegni preparatori, le incisioni. Naples, 1995: 220, no. 201c, reprod. 219, fig. 201c (mislabeled "201").

Inscriptions

in unknown hand, across bottom in brown ink on mount: Vue de la Place publique et de l'Eglise de Trani, près de Barletta, dans la Pouille.; at lower right in the same hand: Des Prez del.; verso, inscribed by the abbé de Saint-Non in pen and brown ink: Vüe de La place publique de l'Eglise de Trani/prè de Barletta dans La Pouille/dessinée par Des Préz

Wikidata ID

Q64594017

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