古典大师画作

A group of drawings from the collection of Jacques and Galila Hollander will be sold in this sale, whose jewel is The Virgin Mary and the Holy Women by Polidoro da Caravaggio. Large in scale and showing a style typical of the artist’s late work, when he was living in Sicily, this sheet belonged to the famous German banker Everhard Jabach, whose collection is now for the most part kept in the Louvre. Among the 18th century drawings, the top lot is a fresh-on-the-market pastel by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour from the collection of Maurice Fenaille. It represents the Princesse de Rohan, who was admired for her beauty and her intelligence and was famous for the Salon she held in the Hôtel de Soubise. The sheet in her hands symbolises her passion for music. Three watercolour views of Antioch in Turkey, Baalbek and Tripoli in Lebanon by Louis-François Cassas precede the section dedicated to the 19th century; realised upon his return from the Middle East, they represent the completed version after sketches that the artist executed on the spot.