Lot 330: DANIËL DUPRÉ AMSTERDAM 1751 - 1817

inscribed in brown ink, verso: a Civita Castellana.

point of the brush and brown ink and wash over black chalk, within black ink framing lines
Inv.nr. N 238

336 by 419 mm.

The Hague 2001, cat. no. 63

Dupré won a scholarship to go to Italy in 1786. In 1790 or 1791, he returned north and settled in Amsterdam. The Unicorno drawing is not dated but another version of the same composition, in a private collection, is signed and dated 1792 (see The Hague 2001, p. 123, fig. 63.1); as the latter drawing is more highly finished, with extra figures and goats, it seems likely that the Unicorno drawing was actually made in Italy, and served as the preliminary study for the second, worked up version, executed after Dupré's return to Amsterdam.