Lycurgus, 1905

  • John La Farge, American, 1835-1910

Watercolor over pencil on thin tissue paper mounted overall to thick paperboard

  • Sheet (irreg.): 8 3/16 × 11 7/16 inches (20.8 × 29.1 cm) Mount: 10 1/4 × 13 3/8 inches (26 × 34 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, Merrill Fund

48.272

Signed and dated, in pencil, lower right: JLF 1905

Inscribed, in pencil, on mount, lower left: Lycurgus: He consults the | Pythian oracle with regard to | the laws of Sparta, before his disappearance or death Inscribed, on mount, under drawing, lower right: Design for the Courth House | Baltimore Md Inscribed, on mount, bottom right: Please return to John La Farge | 51 W 10th St. NY [all crossed out]

1948-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Bulletin of the DIA 29, 1 (1949-1950): pp. 18-20 (ill.). Page, Addison Franklin. "Four Water Color Studies by John La Farge." Art Quarterly 12, 3 (1949): p. 280.

John La Farge, Lycurgus, 1905, watercolor over pencil on thin tissue paper mounted overall to thick paperboard. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Merrill Fund, 48.272.