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Object Timeline
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Drawing, Fountain Design with Three Bronze Animals
This is a Drawing. It was created by Charles Le Brun. It is dated ca. 1670 and we acquired it in 1911. Its medium is chalk, brush and gray wash on laid paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
Three ferocious looking animals inhabit this sheet of chalk drawings. A dragon, lion and Cerberus, a three-headed hound from classical mythology, all bare their teeth menacingly. These lively sketches have the loose, expressive quality of an artist laying down a preliminary idea. They were likely made as part of a bas relief design for a bronze garden fountain. Charles Le Brun, who is known primarily for Versailles interior decoration, also made an enormous contribution to the decoration of the palace’s gardens. Le Brun enlivened the formal gardens laid out by landscape designer André Le Nôtre with a profusion of statuary and fountains. The famous labyrinth of Versailles was a hedge maze with groups of sculptural fountains depicting animals from Aesop's fables. Here, the lion’s appearance is fiercely exagerated. Le Brun developed a theory of expression which examined animal physiology. He identifies the lion’s large brow as a sign of courage and strength.
This object was
donated by
Advisory Council.
It is credited Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
- Fragment (Spain)
- silk.
- Gift of John Pierpont Morgan.
- 1902-1-222
- Scenic - Panel, Garden Court
- screen-printed, rag paper.
- Gift of John Elmo.
- 1980-70-1
- Drawing, Elevation of the Maritime Fountain, for the Place de la Concorde, Paris
- pen and black ink, brush and watercolor, highlighted with white gouache on paper.
- Museum purchase from Sarah Cooper-Hewitt and Smithsonian Institution....
- 1997-1-1
Our curators have highlighted 3 objects that are related to this one.
- Drawing, Garden with Classical Buildings and a Fountain
- pen and brown ink, brush and watercolor, black chalk on white laid paper.
- Museum purchase through gift of the Port Royal Foundation.
- 1986-8-1
- Print, Rocaille (rococo design), in Nouveaux morceaux pour des paravents (New...
- etching, engraving on white paper.
- Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt.
- 1931-94-11
- Drawing, Design for a Fountain with the Labors of Hercules
- black chalk on off-white laid paper.
- Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane.
- 1942-36-1
Its dimensions are
Sheet: 27.6 x 18.2 cm (10 7/8 x 7 3/16 in.) Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.) Frame H x W x D: 50.2 x 39.7 x 2.5 cm (19 3/4 in. x 15 5/8 in. x 1 in.)
It has the following markings
Stamps: ph de Chennevieres [Lugt 2072]; The Cooper Union Museum [Lugt 645b]
It is inscribed
Recto: inscribed in brown ink, below dragon: 3 p 10 po bronze; below lion: 3pi; above three-headed creature: demi relief/3pied; below three-headed creature: au magazin du Roy/ au Vieux Louvre; verso: inscribed in graphite: Ces designs m'ont ete donnes par Horace/de Vielcaste. X bre 1859.
Cite this object as
Drawing, Fountain Design with Three Bronze Animals; Charles Le Brun (French, 1619–1690); France; chalk, brush and gray wash on laid paper; Sheet: 27.6 x 18.2 cm (10 7/8 x 7 3/16 in.) Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.) Frame H x W x D: 50.2 x 39.7 x 2.5 cm (19 3/4 in. x 15 5/8 in. x 1 in.); Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council; 1911-28-6
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Hewitt Sisters Collect.
