Hippolyte Le Bas. Studies Of Venetian Architectural Elements. [circa 1805-1810].

Pen and watercolor. 18.2 x 11.4 cm, mounted on a sheet of beige paper with a black framing strip, in a 28.5 x 22.5 cm frame. Signed in the lower left corner: "h. LeBas". The captions are in tiny script. At the top: the four evangelists in colored medallions. Below: Saint George killing the dragon in a colored circular pediment. In the center: architectural elements (caption "details of the facade of the church of S. Giorgio dei Greci in Venice"). At the bottom: two church ground plans (captions "S. Geremia in Venezia" and "St. Lucy on the Grand Canal in Venice"). The church of Santa Lucia was located on the edge of the Grand Canal to the west of the city and was destroyed around 1860 to make way for the Venice Santa Lucia railway station. The Church of San Geremia is also on the Grand Canal, not far from Santa Lucia, at the corner of the Cannaregio Canal. The relics of Saint Lucy were transferred to San Geremia when Santa Lucia was demolished. Hippolyte Le Bas (1782-1867) is one of the great French neoclassical architects. He was the nephew of Antoine Vaudoyer – who greatly inspired him – and the cousin of Léon Vaudoyer. He was a student of Percier and Fontaine. He is known in particular for having assisted Éloi Labarre in the completion of the Palais de la Bourse after the death of Brongniart, then for having built the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette after winning the competition. From 1804 to 1811, in the company of François Debret, he traveled throughout Italy to study Renaissance architecture and in particular the work of Vignola. Our drawing could date from these travels. Ref. A11-99