{
"data": {
"id": 313396,
"accession_number": "2018.207",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Tomb with Sphinxes and an Owl, c. 1779\u201384. Louis Jean Desprez (French, 1743\u20131804). 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",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Tomb with Sphinxes and an Owl",
"creation_date": "c. 1779\u201384",
"creation_date_earliest": 1774,
"creation_date_latest": 1789,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France"
],
"technique": "aquatint with etching",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Aquatint",
"type": "Print",
"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.)",
"dimensions": {
"platemark": {
"height": 0.34,
"height_inch": 13,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.487,
"width_inch": 19,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875
},
"sheet": {
"height": 0.35,
"height_inch": 13,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.503,
"width_inch": 19,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.8125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "inscribed in graphite on verso: 1881 / 10; watermark and countermark: fleur de lis enclosed in a circle, (right side of sheet); VM\u2019TORJ, (est.), (left side of the sheet)",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 521173,
"title": "Egyptomania: Fashion\u2019s Conflicted Obsession",
"description": "Egyptomania: Fashion\u2019s Conflicted Obsession. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 1, 2023-January 28, 2024).",
"opening_date": "2023-04-01T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 665048,
"title": "Imagination in the Age of Reason",
"description": "Imagination in the Age of Reason. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 28, 2024-March 2, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2024-09-28T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Galerie Gerda Bassenge, Berlin, Germany, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2018",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2018-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The growing popularity of Egypt in the late 18th century, bolstered by Napoleon Bonaparte\u2019s ultimately failed attempt to colonize the country, ensured a ready market for the subject of Louis Jean Desprez's print.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"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\u2014a printmaking technique that produces shades of gray\u2014to render the space\u2019s dramatic shadows and stone surfaces.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79873883"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2018.207-tomb-with-sphinx",
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2018.207-tomb-with-sphinxes-a"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Wollin, Nils G. Gravures originales de Desprez ou exe\u0301cute\u0301es d'apre\u0300s dessins. Malmo\u0308: J. Kroon, 1933.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 57, no. 28 (as Tombeau c); Reproduced: p. 146",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Peters, Emily and Salsbury, Britany. \u201cAcquisitions 2018: Prints and Drawings.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 20-23.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 22.",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Wollin 28",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.207",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2018.207/2018.207_web.jpg",
"width": "900",
"height": "636",
"filesize": "245898",
"filename": "2018.207_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2018.207/2018.207_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2402",
"filesize": "3346097",
"filename": "2018.207_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2018.207/2018.207_full.tif",
"width": "6117",
"height": "4321",
"filesize": "79326560",
"filename": "2018.207_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Severance and Greta Millikin Trust",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 313396,
"creators": [
{
"id": 39670,
"description": "Louis Jean Desprez (French, 1743\u20131804)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1743",
"death_year": "1804",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2018-09-04T00:00:00-04:00",
"sortable_date": 1774,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1779\u201384",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-08-22 11:53:18.417000"
}
}