Johann Heinrich LIPS (Kloten, 1758 - Zurich,... - Lot 208 - Ader

Lot 208
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6000 - 8000 EUR
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Result : 11 520EUR
Johann Heinrich LIPS (Kloten, 1758 - Zurich,... - Lot 208 - Ader
Johann Heinrich LIPS (Kloten, 1758 - Zurich, 1817) Ulysses visiting the Underworld, 1785 Pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash. Signed, localized and dated lower left: "Joh: H: Lips inv. et fec: Roma 1785". (Glued in full on its old mounting, some wear). 45,5 x 66,9 cm Provenance: - Probably sale Zurich, Kunst & Spiegel AG, October 26-28, 1932, no. 933 ("1785, Mythologische Szene. Sepiazeichnung, tuschiert, 46 x 68 cm"). - Former Olivier Aaron collection (1947-2018); its sale, Auction Art, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, October 8, 2019, no. 89. Lips grew up in Kloten, about ten kilometers north of Zurich. He was a student of Johann Rudolf Schellenberg, an engraver in Winterthur. He met Füssli in 1778, who entrusted him with the realization of some engravings and nicknamed him "the wizard of Kloten" (see: J. Kruse, Johann Heinrich Lips 1758-1817. Ein Zürcher Kupferstecher zwischen Lavater und Goethe, cat. exp.Coburg, 1989, p. 27). In 1780, he made a trip to Germany, then went to Italy in 1782. In 1786, he met Goethe again. Goethe asked him to participate in the illustration of the first edition of his Complete Works published between 1787 and 1790. He left Italy in 1789 and settled in Weimar for a few years as a teacher at the princely school of drawing, before returning to Zurich in 1794. The subject of our drawing, executed in Rome, is taken from book XI of the Odyssey. Urged on by the magician Circe, with whom he has been staying for a year, Odysseus goes to meet the deceased Tiresias, a famous Theban soothsayer, who alone can reveal to him how to end his journey and return home to İthaca. The choice of this Homeric theme, which is very rare in figurative art, reflects the profound erudition of Lips and more generally of the Germanic community in Rome in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
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