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Artist: Jean Baptiste Delafosse (1721-1775) (2)

Type: watercolour (2151)

Keywords
music (1332) | musical instruments (826) | niches (1509) | organs (musical instruments) (179) | violoncellos (20)

Image sets with this image: a

Jean Baptiste Delafosse (1721-1775)

Pen and ink (Indian), watercolour on paper

Height: 37 cm; Width: 22.1 cm;

Acquisition (source, method, date)
Witt, Robert Clermont (Sir); bequest; 1952
D.1952.RW.4504

About this work
Delafosse was at the forefront of the revival of classical ornament in the 1760s, evident here in the coffered arches and the column-shaped pedestals, left and right. He also assigned ornament a denotative function: the sphinxes decorating the organ refer to the mystery and potential danger of music’s appeal. Design is close here to its French root ‘dessin’ (drawing) and Delafosse exploits all the effects of the medium to model a space and to create an atmosphere, dramatised by the frame of rushed curtains and the theatrical lighting. (Permanent collection label)

Copyright: © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London