Angels and Putti Flying with a Garland: Design for a Ceiling

c. 1675

Charles de La Fosse

Associated Names
Charles de La Fosse

Artist, French, 1636 - 1716

This is a drawing of cherubs and a garland. The image features a group of cherubs or putti carrying or playing with a garland of flowers. The drawing is done in a reddish-brown chalk, creating a soft look. The figures are depicted with movement and fluidity through the drapery and posture. The composition shows curved lines of the garland echoing the circular forms created by the bodies of the cherubs. The overall impression is one of liveliness and grace.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    red and black chalk with touches of white chalk, squared in black chalk on light gray paper (formerly blue), with later framing line in brown ink

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Donald Stone

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 25.9 × 40 cm (10 3/16 × 15 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2022.40.23

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Private collection; (unknown sale, Rouen, 14 June 1998, no. 1). (W. M. Brady, New York); purchased 2006 by Donald Stone, New York [1942 - 2020]; bequest to NGA, 2022.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1999

  • Old Master Drawings. W. M. Brady. New York, 1999, no. 13.

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 82-83, 279, no. 32 (color).

2023

  • Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550-1800, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2023.

Bibliography

2006

  • Gustin Gomez, Clémentine. Charles de La Fosse, 1636-1716: Le maître des Modernes. 2 vols. Paris, 2006, 2: 297, no. D.272.

Inscriptions

in pen and brownk at lower right: No. 8. Lafosse

You may be interested in

Loading Results