DE ROYBON, Bernard.MareMagnum
Vue d'Italie : Marine animée aux environs de Naples
1776rif. 59469s. l.: S. n. 1776. Fine. S. n. s. l. circa 1776 32 x 40.50 cm une feuille encadrée Original drawing in ink and watercolor depicting an animated seaside view with a village perched on a cliff. Modern framing in blonde molding. Drawing executed during the journey made with the Marquis de Sade during the year 1776. Jean-Baptiste Tierce 1737-1794 student at the École des Beaux-arts in Rouen then at the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris quickly distinguished himself as a landscape painter for his views of the South of France and Italy. His paintings are preserved at the Uffizi in Florence and in several French museums. When in December 1775 Sade left Rome for Naples he was welcomed by the son-in-law of his friend Doctor Mesny Jean-Baptiste Tierce who at that time was receiving commissions from Cardinal de Bernis. He found lodging for the Marquis ""who intended to see everything in the region learn about everything judge admire criticize love hate in short to give free rein to that insatiable and passionate curiosity which led him into museums galleries churches palaces and libraries as well as into grottos vaults catacombs and even into the bowels of volcanoes. He was not content to contemplate works of art ancient or modern monuments; he also observed customs politics religion administration social life. The beauty of women worldly customs the quality of entertainments ways of eating drinking dressing praying conducting oneself in society: nothing left him indifferent. He wanted to grasp all the present and all the past of this civilization to embrace it entirely in a single and universal vision. A gigantic program commensurate with his exceptional imagination but which he could no longer fulfill which was impossible for him to fulfill. Yet such was his first ambition as a writer: grandiose excessive. With this 'great work' in view Sade hastily took notes at roadsides or in inns which he supplemented with the notes of his correspondents Mesny and Iberti. Thus was built this monument which he intended for the public but which would not see the light of day until the 20thth century. Jean-Baptiste Tierce collaborated closely: he reread the notes and recorded his observations in small notebooks with numbers referring to the works described. Sade took the greatest account of them. Often the painter accompanied him on his excursions his sketchbook in hand drawing the buildings and landscapes before their eyes. About a hundred of these drawings and gouaches were recently found in the archives of the Sade family. They give the Journey to Italy the appearance of a true reportage."" Maurice Levert Sade pp. 283-284. Provenance: archives of the Sade family. S. n. unknown
