Sketch of Adam and Eve Sculptures by Alonso Cano
Artist
Sir William Orpen
(1878 - 1931)
Date1905
Mediumpaper
Dimensions28.5 x 24 cm
ClassificationsDrawings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery.
Donated by Mrs T. Bodkin, 1975.
Object number1396
DescriptionThis drawing is of two other works in the Permanent Collection (Reg. nos. 1399, 1400). Bruce Arnold notes "Lane was totally preoccupied with his never-ending hunt for art treasures. Orpen was with him most of the time, to begin with, and on one visit to a dealer he saw two small terra cotta figures of Adam and Eve, allegedly by Alonso Cano, the painter, sculptor, architect, ('the Michaelangelo of Spain') and friend of Velasquez. Orpen admired them but could not afford them. He had used up all his spending money, he told Grace - about £4 - on photographs of the paintings he had seen, and he then gave up visiting the dealers with Lane, and concentrated instead on the art galleries, particularly the Prado to which he went again and again." - Bruce Arnold, Mirror to an Age, Jonathan Cape, London, 1981, pp. 144-5.
On View
Not on view
