SCANDINAVIAN SCHOOL, LATE 18TH-CENTURY The Continence of Scipio<>.
Brush and brown ink and wash on cream laid paper, circa 1800. J. Kool watermark (Churchill 197).
Formerly attributed to Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, the current work is likely by a northern artist. One possible influence could be a painting of the same subject by Nicolas-Guy Brenet from 1788 (see Angelika Kauffmann und Ihre Zeitgenossen<>, Bregenz and Vienna, 1968-69, catalogue number 131, illustration number 136). The artist also might have been familiar with Gérard de Lairesse's 17th-century painting of the same subject, which was widely available as a contemporaneous engraving in Lairesse's Grand Livre des Peintres<>, Paris, 1787 (see Roy, Gérard de Lairesse<>, Paris, page 347-48).
