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St. John the Evangelist
About the Artwork
This drawing is a study for a fresco in the Parisian church of Les Invalides. The structure's four pendentives are each decorated with images of the Four Evangelists, and the Cleveland sheet relates to the design for St. John. La Fosse developed his ideas in numerous preparatory studies before beginning the final painting. He portrayed the religious figures with power and exuberance, imbuing his decorative scheme with unprecedented vigor. Drawings by La Fosse are difficult to find in the United States, and this sheet is an exceptional example of the artist's trois crayons (three-chalk) technique of using black, red, and white chalk together. The chalks are subtly blended, creating the effect of billowing drapery rather than stiff linearity.
Inscriptions
verso, center, in brown ink: 191 [underlined with flourish]; upper left, in graphite: Lot 353 [underlined] / Hotel Drouot / Vente Chardey / 14-17 Mai/77; lower left, in graphite: C. Delafosse [underlined]
Exhibition history
Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965). Drawings Before 1800. Wriston Art Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI (organizer) (January 1-February 29, 1968). French Master Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries in North American Collections. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (September 2-October 15, 1972); Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario M5T 1G4, Canada (organizer) (September 2-October 15, 1972); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (November 3-December 17, 1972); The New York Cultural Center, New York, NY (April 4-May 13, 1973). Rubenism. David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI (January 30-February 23, 1975). French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 2-May 16, 1982). Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983). Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988). French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995). 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).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Charles de La Fosse (French, 1636–1716)
- Date
- c. 1700–1702
- Medium
- black, red, and white chalk
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 42 x 26.2 cm (16 9/16 x 10 5/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Alida di Nardo in memory of her husband, Antonio di Nardo
- Accession no.
- 1956.602
Provenance
?-?: Unknown eighteenth-century? collector ?-by 1877: Rémi Valdemar Chardey [1813-1900], Le Havre 1877: (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 14-17, 1877, no. 353) ?-1956: Mr. and Mrs. Antonio di Nardo, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
More by Charles de la Fosse in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00010993
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