price: U.S. $10,000

JAN CLAUDIUS DE COCK

1668 — Antwerp — 1735

Allegory of Sculpture

traces of black chalk underdrawing, pen & brown ink. 125/8 x 71/2" (321 x 191 mm). signed and dated, l/l: Joan Claudius de Cock invenit delineavit A MDCCVI and numbered: 3.

provenance:
the private collection of a former sculpture curator at a U.S. museum.

Probably intended for a series of engravings of the arts, the present drawing, representing sculpture, is conceived with humor, knowledge of the antique, and a sense of good design. It is also well executed. Certainly the subject was dear to the artist who was himself a sculptor. De Cock had entered the sculptors' guild in Antwerp in 1688-89. After a stint working for King William III of England, he was back in Antwerp, and from about 1697 he was master of a thriving workshop. He also wrote a handbook of sculptural practice.1

De Cock is also known for his pen & ink drawings after Antique sculpture. Additionally, there is a bust of a Negro Boy in marble (inv. A.18-1913) in the V & A which is attributed to de Cock.

1

Charles Avery, Finger Prints of the Artist, European Terra-Cotta Sculpture form the Sackler Collection, New York, 1980, p. 259.