19th Century FRENCH SCHOOL
A Roman Altar Decorated with Ram’s Head and a Garland
Pen and grey ink and grey wash, over an underdrawing in pencil.
An artist’s monogram or a collector’s mark PL(?) in brown ink at the lower left.
211 x 150 mm. (8 1/4 x 5 7/8 in.)
Although the monogram at the lower left of the present sheet is likely to be that of the as-yet unidentified artist, or else a collector’s mark, it may be noted that it is very similar to the monogram employed by King Louis-Philippe (1773-1850), who ruled as King of the French between 1830 and 1848. Louis-Philippe is known to have been an amateur draughtsman in his youth, and even worked as a drawing master as well as a teacher of maths, history and geography at a school of Reichenau in Switzerland, where, under the assumed name of M. Chabos, he lived in exile in 1793, at the height of the French Revolution.
Provenance
Muriel Spiro Butkin, Shaker Heights, Ohio
Bequeathed by her to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Deaccessioned by the museum in 2021.