Description
Joseph Goupy played a significant role in cultivating a taste for Italian art in 18th-century Britain. Here, Goupy copied an oil painting by Salvator Rosa now in the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth. Copying from Old Masters was a venerated practice in the 18th century. In addition to being an essential aspect of artistic training, the circulation of great works of art served to educate connoisseurs and to shape public opinion. Goupy’s luminous gouaches were highly prized, fetching prices considerably higher than original portraits of the period.
Provenance
(sale, Christie's, London, March 25, 1969, no. 32) (1969); (Yvonne Tan Bunzl, London) (after 1969-?); (William H. Schab, New York) (?-?); Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (?-1970); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1970-)
Accession Number
1970.362
Medium
gouache
Dimensions
Sheet: 28.5 x 42 cm (11 1/4 x 16 9/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection
Tags
Drawing Baroque (1600–1750) Gouache British
Background & Context
Background Story
Joseph Goupy (1689-1769) was a French-born painter and printmaker who worked in England, known for the atmospheric etchings after Italian masters that make him one of the most accomplished printmakers of the early 18th century. Jacob's Dream from c. 1720 depicts the biblical subject of Jacob's dream—the patriarch Jacob seeing a ladder reaching from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending—in the atmospheric, dramatically composed manner that distinguishes Goupy's best work from the more general printmaking of his contemporaries. The c. 1720 date places this in Goupy's early period, when he was producing the atmospheric etchings that are his most accomplished works, and the biblical subject shows his talent for combining dramatic composition with atmospheric effect.
Cultural Impact
Jacob's Dream is important in the history of printmaking because it demonstrates the atmospheric, dramatically composed manner that Goupy brought to biblical subjects as one of the most accomplished printmakers of the early 18th century. Goupy's atmospheric etchings—combining the dramatic composition of biblical subjects with the atmospheric effect that is his most distinctive contribution—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in early 18th-century printmaking, and the c. 1720 etching shows this tradition at its most atmospheric.
Why It Matters
Jacob's Dream is Goupy's atmospheric etching: the biblical subject of Jacob's ladder rendered in the dramatically composed manner of one of the most accomplished printmakers of the early 18th century. The c. 1720 etching shows the combination of dramatic composition with atmospheric effect that makes Goupy's biblical prints distinctive.
