Louis-Jean-Jacques DURAMEAU (Paris, 1733 - Versailles, 1796)
Alexander and Diogenes
Black stone, pen and India ink, grey wash and white gouache highlights on two assembled sheets of blue paper.
(Glued in full on its old mounting, small hole towards the right, small tears on the edges).
53,2 x 86,5 cm
Provenance:
- Probably sale, Paris, Hôtel Bullion, February 27, 1782, no. 1 ("Dessin encadré. Alexander visiting Diogenes, large composition across twenty figures by Durameau.").
- Former collection of the Marquis de Lagoy, his stamp at the bottom center (L.1710).
- Sale Hôtel des ventes de Bayeux, 11 November 2019, n° 10, reproduced.
Bibliography:
Anne Leclair, Louis-Jacques Durameau, Paris, Arthéna, 2001, no. D98, p. 254 (lost drawing).
Louis-Jacques Durameau trained as a draughtsman with Jean-Baptiste Defernex and then as a student of Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1757 for his painting Elijah Resurrects the Son of the Sunamite. He stayed in Rome from 1761 to 1764. He then created large ceiling decorations, where his ardor is marvelous. Here, the composition stages the meeting between Alexander and Diogenes. This cynical philosopher lived in a barrel in Athens. When the young prince came to visit him to hear his teachings, he insolently told him: "Get out of my sun". On a background of ancient city the interaction is underlined by a powerful diagonal. Enhancing a pen and ink drawing on a blue background with white gouache and gray wash, Louis-Jacques Durameau creates a splendid cameo where the relief of the protagonists stands out in a brilliant way. This iconographic theme is probably inspired by the famous relief of the same name sculpted by Pierre Puget and now kept in the Louvre Museum. Stylistically, our drawing can be compared to another large drawing of classical theme by Durameau, Achilles pleurant Patrocle, dated 1767 (see: Anne Leclair, Louis-Jacques Durameau, Paris, Arthéna, 2001, D.59, reproduced. p. 237). This places this spectacular drawing in the early stages of neoclassical research, before the 1770s.
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