Lot 125: Charles Michel-Ange Challe Paris 1718 - 1778 , interior of the colosseum, with seated figures black and white chalk and stumping on light brown paper

signed, lower left: M Challe black and white chalk and stumping on light brown paper

measurements note 299 by 456mm

Vermont, Middlebury College, Architectural, Ornament, Landscape and Figure Drawings collected by Richard Wunder , 1975, no. 90, reproduced

Richard Wunder, 'Charles Michel-Ange Challe, A study of his Life and Work', in Apollo, no. 87, January 1968, pp. 22-33, fig. 3

Richard Wunder, his sale, London, Christie's, 7 July 1976, lot 31, reproduced

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF THE LATE JEAN MONTAGUE MASSENGALE
In the Middlebury College catalogue of his collection, Richard Wunder writes that when Challe moved to Rome in 1742, he fell strongly under the influence of Piranesi, but nonetheless he continued to make drawings of Roman monuments in soft crayon in the manner of his teacher, Boucher. The Colosseum was a favourite subject and two similar studies, in the same medium and on the same paper, dated 1747, are known.υ1 1. See Exhibited, op. cit., p. 59