Description

This is a significant early example of pure landscape drawing in Europe, as it is dedicated completely to the depiction of nature for its own sake, without suggestion of a biblical or historical narrative. The rapidity and regularity of strokes used for the evergreen and deciduous trees and the sweeping lines in the foreground suggest that the landscape in Farmhouse on the Slope of a Hill was made directly from nature. The sheet comes from an album of 41 landscape studies by Fra Bartolommeo assembled by an eighteenth-century collector and disbound for sale in the mid-20th century. A member of the Dominican Order, Fra Bartolomeo likely produced these drawings during his travels in and around Florence, often to Dominican establishments.

Provenance

Probably by descent to studio assistant Paolo del Signoraccio (died 1547), called Fra. Paolino da Pistoia, monastery of San Marco, Florence (1517-1547?); Possibly bequeathed to his pupil, Sister Plautilla Nelli [1523-1588], convent of Santa Caterina, Florence (1547-1588?); Possibly to the Convent of Santa Caterina da Siena, Florence, to 1725 (1588?-1725?); Cavaliere Francesco Maria Nicolò Gabburri (d. 1742), Florence (his mount), Lugt 2818 and Lugt suppl. 2992b (1725-1742?); By descent to his heirs (1742); William Kent (1685-1748), London and Rome. (1742?-1748?); his sale, London. (ca. 1748); Private collection, southern Ireland (?-1925); Private collection, England (?-1957); with Sotheby’s, London, 20 November 1957, “Drawings of Landscapes and Trees by Fra. Bartolommeo," no. 3. (1957); with F. Kleinberger, New York (1957); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. (1957-)