Angel with the three Marys at Christ's empty tomb, 1770 – 1780

Blatt: 119 x 176 mm

Physical Description: Brush and black, grey and white ink, on dark blue mottled paper

Inventory Number: 1121

Object Number: 1121 Z

Status: Request for presentation in the study room of the Prints and Drawings Department

Texts

About the Work

The landscape painter Grandjean of Amsterdam, who was fated to die a premature death, had sojourned in Rome and, under the influence of the Italian Renaissance, devoted himself to neoclassicist history depiction. In this chiaroscuro drawing on tinted paper – possibly a design for a painting – he rendered the figures in statuesque manner. The women to whom the angel announces Christ’s resurrection at the empty tomb each express a different state of mind: grief, knowledge and humble faith.