Lot 276: JEAN-JOSEPH BERNARD

(Paris 1740-1809 Paris)
Calligraphic Profile Portrait of a Pope.

Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper, 1790. 308x183 mm; 12 1/4 x7 1/4 inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto, and counter signed and dated in ink, lower left recto. Inscribed "Ils etoient a tes pieds, ces credules humains/Sans songer qu'il falloit prendre garde a tes mains" in ink, lower center recto. D & C Blauw watermark. Ex-collection Dr. Cornelis Verheyden de Lancey, with his label verso (see Lugt supplement 2501c) and unknown collector (Lugt supplement 2701a, upper left recto).

There is another calligraphic portrait by Bernard, of a French actress, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see Bean and Turcic, 15th-18th Century French Drawings, New York, 1986, p. 24, no. 9).