Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000305About the Artwork
This is a significant early example of pure landscape drawing in Europe, as it is dedicated completely to the depiction of nature for its own sake, without suggestion of a biblical or historical narrative. The rapidity and regularity of strokes used for the evergreen and deciduous trees and the sweeping lines in the foreground suggest that the landscape in Farmhouse on the Slope of a Hill was made directly from nature. The sheet comes from an album of 41 landscape studies by Fra Bartolommeo assembled by an eighteenth-century collector and disbound for sale in the mid-20th century. A member of the Dominican Order, Fra Bartolomeo likely produced these drawings during his travels in and around Florence, often to Dominican establishments.
Inscriptions
a bird in ink lower left recto
Provenance
1517-1547?: Probably by descent to studio assistant Paolo del Signoraccio (died 1547), called Fra. Paolino da Pistoia, monastery of San Marco, Florence 1547-1588?: Possibly bequeathed to his pupil, Sister Plautilla Nelli [1523-1588], convent of Santa Caterina, Florence 1588?-1725?: Possibly to the Convent of Santa Caterina da Siena, Florence, to 1725 1725-1742?: Cavaliere Francesco Maria Nicolò Gabburri (d. 1742), Florence (his mount), Lugt 2818 and Lugt suppl. 2992b 1742: By descent to his heirs 1742?-1748?: William Kent (1685-1748), London and Rome. ca. 1748: his sale, London. ?-1925: Private collection, southern Ireland ?-1957: Private collection, England 1957: with Sotheby’s, London, 20 November 1957, “Drawings of Landscapes and Trees by Fra. Bartolommeo," no. 3. 1957: with F. Kleinberger, New York 1957-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Exhibition history
Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960). Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964). Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965). Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965). Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968). Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 26, 1968). Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-September 19, 1971). Italian Drawings Selected From Mid-Western Collections. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (organizer) (February 25-April 16, 1972). Italian Drawings with von Hirsh Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 15-December 4, 1978). The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-April 22, 1979). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 1986-March 1, 1987). Drawings by Fra Bartolommeo. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (organizer) (December 15, 1990-February 17, 1991). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). Fra Bartolommeo: The Divine Renaissance. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (organizer) (October 15, 2016-January 15, 2017). Love Gardens / Forbidden Fruit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-October 29, 2023).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Fra Bartolommeo (Italian, 1472–1517)
- Date
- c. 1508
- Medium
- pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 22.3 x 29.4 cm (8 3/4 x 11 9/16 in.); Secondary Support: 27.5 x 41.2 cm (10 13/16 x 16 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of the Hanna Fund, Purchase, Dudley P. Allen Fund, Delia E. Holden Fund and L. E. Holden Fund
- Accession no.
- 1957.498
More by Fra Bartolommeo in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00000305
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