Attrib. Sir James Thornhill Allegorical Studies

An original 18th-century pen & ink drawing, Attrib. Sir James Thornhill, Allegorical Studies.

This profusive sheet of studies in ink and graphite is attributed to the masterful decorative painter Sir James Thornhill (1675/6–1734), who worked in the Italian Baroque style at the beginning of the 18th century. We acquired the drawing with this attribution and with the provenance of William Drummond (Covent Garden Gallery, London), the renowned British drawings and watercolours dealer.

Sir James Thornhill was the foremost decorative painter in England, earning him a knighthood and appointment as history painter-in-ordinary (1718) and sergeant-painter (1720) to the king. His great decorative schemes included the 'Painted Hall' at the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, the paintings on the inside of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, the chapel ceiling of Queen’s College Oxford, the hall of Blenheim Palace, and works at Chatsworth House and Wimpole Hall. Notably, Thornhill rose to eminence against the prevailing dominance of foreign decorative painters, who received almost all commissions for such work.

Thornhill's large-scale compositions comprised figures commonly shown in idealised and rhetorical postures. Narrative elements of classical allegory would be combined with topical events relevant to the patron; for example, his design for the ceiling of the Queen Anne room at Hampton Court shows Queen Anne surrounded by allegorical figures representing Providence, Virtues, Arts and Sciences, Empire.

Our sheet of drawings has the vigorous spontaneity of an imaginative, preliminary sketching process: the page jostles with nude figures alluding to various classical allegories such as The Three Graces, Atlas, Athena, bacchantes with drinking vessels and figures with lyres. The composition nevertheless achieves a sense of coherence and depth, anchored by obelisks and trees within the 'landscape'.

The studies are quite possibly preliminary workings for an interior mural scheme, or they may have connection with design work that Thornhill did for the Chelsea Porcelain Factory. Intriguingly, the sheet bears a faint inscription within the graphite underdrawing at the upper left which reads 'Nollekens'—presumably a reference to Joseph Francis Nollekens, or ‘Old Nollekens’ (1702–1748), the Antwerp-born painter in London. Old Nollekens and Thornhill both did decorative work for the china manufactory in Chelsea, as recalled by his son, the sculptor Joseph Nollekens, in the 1895 publication 'Nollekens and his Times' by John Thomas Smith. The designs of Chelsea porcelain at this time drew much inspiration from the elaborate French decorative style of the Sèvres manufactory, which was born out of the luxurious demands of the Ancien Regime.

On laid paper with simple fleur-de-lis watermark.

There is an ink sketch of a face on the verso.

Provenance: William Drummond (Covent Garden Gallery, London).