Hexagonal Temple in an Italianate Landscape

c. 1780

Louis Gustave Taraval

Associated Names
Louis Gustave Taraval

Artist, French, 1739 - 1794

The image shows a perspective view of a grand neoclassical temple with a large, domed roof. The point of view is slightly elevated, offering a comprehensive look at the architecture and its surroundings. The horizon line separates the sky from distant architectural structures like ruins and smaller buildings on the left. The style appears to be architectural drawing with clear lines and minimal brushstrokes, emphasizing the temple's columns, friezes, and statues. The color palette is muted with beiges, whites, and light grays contrasting with faint blue and green hues in the landscape. People are seen moving around the base of the temple, with a spacious, serene feeling in the lightly sketched terrain beyond.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and black ink with watercolor and gray wash within a border drawn in blue watercolor and pen and black ink on laid paper extensively pricked for transfer

  • Credit Line

    William B. O'Neal Fund

  • Dimensions

    image: 34.8 x 55 cm (13 11/16 x 21 5/8 in.)
    sheet: 37.2 x 57 cm (14 5/8 x 22 7/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1998.28.3

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

A member of the d'Albert de Luynes family; Jean Masson [1856-1933] (Lugt 1494a), Amiens and Paris; (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 28 January 1998, no. 172, as French School, 18th Century); purchased (through P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd.) 1998 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 244-245, 290, no. 106 (color).

Bibliography

2010

  • Stein, Perrin. "French Drawings, Washington," The Burlington Magazine 102 (January 2010): 67.

Inscriptions

by later hand, upper left verso in graphite: dessiné par Taraval Lejeune; by later hand, upper left verso in graphite: 250; by later hand, lower right verso in graphite: [undeciphered]; on backing of old frame (now discarded): Coll J Masson / Connétable Albert de Luynes

Watermarks

D & C Blauw (Heawood 3268)

Wikidata ID

Q64593415

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