id:			313396
accession number:	2018.207
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.207
updated:		2019-03-20 12:03:48.860000

Tomb with Sphinx: Funerary Monument with an Owl on a Sarcophagus Supported by Sphinx, c. 1779-1784. Louis Jean Desprez (French, 1743-1804). Aquatint with etching; platemark: 34 x 48.7 cm (13 3/8 x 19 3/16 in.); sheet: 35 x 50.3 cm (13 3/4 x 19 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2018.207

title:				Tomb with Sphinx: Funerary Monument with an Owl on a Sarcophagus Supported by Sphinx
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1779-1784
creation date earliest:		1774
creation date latest:		1789
current location:		
creditline:			Severance and Greta Millikin Trust
copyright:			

---

culture:	France, 18th century
technique:	aquatint with etching
department:	Prints
collection:	PR - Aquatint
type:		Print
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: Wollin 28

---

CREATORS

* Louis Jean Desprez (French, 1743-1804)  - artist

---

measurements: Platemark: 34 x 48.7 cm (13 3/8 x 19 3/16 in.); Sheet: 35 x 50.3 cm (13 3/4 x 19 13/16 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	Written in graphite on verso: “1881” “10”
	translation:	
	remark:		

	inscription:	Watermark and countermark: fleur de lis enclosed in a circle, (right side of sheet); VM’TORJ, (est.), (left side of the sheet).
	translation:	
	remark:		

---

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

---

LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

---

PROVENANCE

	Galerie Gerda Bassenge, Berlin, Germany
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: September 4, 2018
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


---

fun fact: 


digital description: 
Originally trained as an architect, Louis Jean Desprez produced this print depicting a tomb while living in Rome. He combined details observed while visiting catacombs in southern Italy with macabre inventions, such as the pair of feet visible from within the sculptural space. Desprez creatively used aquatint—a printmaking technique that produces shades of gray—to render the space’s dramatic shadows and stone surfaces.

wall description: 

---

RELATED WORKS

---

CITATIONS

	Baudicour, Prosper. <em>Le Peintre-graveur français continué, ou catalogue raisonné des estampes gravées par les peintres et les dessinateurs de l’école française nés dans le XVIIIe siècle</em>. Paris: Bouchard-Huzard, Rapilly, etc., 1861.
	page number: 	p. 264
	url:		

	Renouvier, Jules. <em>Histoire de l’art pendant la Révolution</em>, <em>considéré principalement dans les estampes</em>. Paris: Vve. Jules Renouard, 1863
	page number: 	p. 62
	url:		

	Michel, Rémi. “La fantasme de la Chimère.” In <em>La Chimère de Monsieur Desprez</em>. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1994
	page number: 	p. 155-174, ill. p. 158
	url:		

	Hoisington, Rena M. “Etching as a Vehicle for Innovation: Four Exceptional Peintres-Graveurs.” In <em>Artists and Amateurs: Etching in 18th-Century France</em>, edited by Perrin Stein. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013.
	page number: 	p. 90-92
	url:		

	Wollin, Nils G. Gravures originales de Desprez ou exécutées d'après dessins. Malmö: J. Kroon, 1933.
	page number: 	57, no 28 (repr. p. 146, no. 19
	url:		

---

IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2018.207/2018.207_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2018.207/2018.207_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2018.207/2018.207_full.tif