Lot 399: Charles de Wailly (Paris 1730-1798)

Charles de Wailly (Paris 1730-1798)
Capriccio with a statue of a commander beneath a baldachin
signed and dated 'De Wailly. f. Aυo 1756.'
black chalk, pen and black ink, brown and grey wash, heightened with white
19¼ x 14 3/8 in. (48.8 x 36.5 cm.)

M. Roland-Michel, Le Dessin au XVIIIème Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 143, fig. 156.

Ian Woodner; Christie's, London, 2 July 1991, lot 160.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, 1 July 1997, lot 143, where acquired by the present owner.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium
A student of Blondel and Legeay, Charles de Wailly became a member of the Academy in 1762. He was the architect of the Château de Montmusard, the Odéon Théâtre and the pulpit of the Church of Saint-Sulpice and, in 1760, had been the first architect to use the Ionic order on a Parisian mansion, the Hôtel de Voyer.

The present drawing, executed during de Wailly's stay in Rome, includes as the most prominent feature of the capriccio Bernini's baldachin in Saint Peter's. The free and fluid draughtsmanship recalls to mind Bélanger's comment that 'de Wailly was among the first to abandon the use of the ruler and the compass in order to elaborate architecture more freely with his brushes' (F.J. Bélanger, Journal de Paris, 1r Frimaire, an VII (1798), p. 261).