Description:

Giovanni Battista Cipriani
Italian, (1727 - 1785)
mother with children
graphite and chalk on fine laid paper
Unsigned. Attribution verso.

Biography from Christie's London, King Street: Born in Florence, and trained under Ignazio Hugford, Giovanni Battista Cipriani was a key figure in shaping the taste of architectural decoration in England during the 18th century. Shortly before turning thirty, he was persuaded to come to London by Sir William Chambers and Joseph Wilton in 1756, eleven years before the arrival of Angelica Kauffman. He would remain here for the rest of his life, providing decorative schemes for buildings by Chambers and Robert Adam, and attracting the patronage of King George III and Lords Charlemont, Tylney and Anson.

He gained a considerable reputation, being elected a Foundation Member of the Royal Academy in 1768 and being involved in numerous projects in and around the capital, including Somerset House and Syon House. Cipriani's influence was further spread by his teaching at the Royal Academy Schools, his pupils including John Hamilton Mortimer, and by the numerous engravings after his work made by his close friend Bartolozzi.

His fellow Academician and friend Henry Fuseli said of Cipriani, he was ‘equally distinguished as an artist and as a man: the fertility of his invention, the graces of his composition, and the seductive elegance of his forms, were only surpassed by the probity of his character, the simplicity of his manners and the benevolence of his heart.' (Rev. M. Pilkington, A Dictionary of Painters from the Revival of the Art to the Present Period, revised and updated by H. Fuseli, London, 1810, p. 117).

Along with Kauffman and Francesco Zuccarelli, he was a key proponent, and popularizer, of the neo-classical idiom, which may have owed some debt to the study of Roman reliefs during his formative years in Italy. He was an assiduous draughtsman though his work was only rarely translated into large-scale history paintings, despite his contemporaries highly valuing his ability in the discipline; Edward Edwards, for example, remarked that Francis Hayman ‘was unquestionably the best historical painter in the Kingdom, before the arrival of Cipriani' (E. Edwards, Anecdotes of Painters…, London, 1808, p. 51).

  • Dimensions: 7 7/8"H x 5 5/16"W (sheet), 13 1/2"H x 10 7/8"W (mat)
  • Medium: graphite and chalk on fine laid paper

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February 10, 2024 11:00 AM EST
Indianapolis, IN, US

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