Overdoor Decoration

Description

This wood carving by Grinling Gibbons, England’s most famous master of this medium, comes from the decoration above a door of the Inner Library at Cassiobury Park, near London, one of the artist’s earliest commissions. Decorative elements from this house were sold after it was pulled down in 1922, but many rooms were photographed before their destruction, and the original location of surviving carvings can thus be identified.

Provenance

Grace Rainey Rogers [1867-1943], New York, NY (before 1943); (Parke-Bernet, November 18-19, 1943, lot. 399)., sold to P.W. French & Co.) (1943); (P.W. French & Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (1943); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1943-)

Overdoor Decoration

Grinling Gibbons

c. 1675–1677

Accession Number

1943.663

Medium

limewood

Dimensions

Overall: 68.6 x 86.4 cm (27 x 34 in.)

Classification

Sculpture

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Grace Rainey Rogers Fund