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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 645

Fäsch, Johann Ludwig Wernhard, circa 1738-1778. Johann Ludwig Wernhard Fäsch volumes of portrait drawings

Overview

Watercolor drawings on vellum, of actors and actresses in Paris and London, by Swiss artist Johann Ludwig Wernhard Fäsch.

Dates

  • Creation: 1760-1778

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in French and English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

.5 linear feet (1 box)

38 miniature drawings in graphite and watercolor. Some include additional mediums added, such as gold paint, gouache, and possibly varnish. All images are drawn on vellum, and mounted on board. Many drawings have an attached title page and tissue paper barrier. Some are signed, most are not. Locations are not specified on drawings but all are are from performances at theaters in Paris or London. Most items have manuscript annotations on image itself and/or on title page. Drawings were found already removed from bindings at time of cataloging; empty leather bindings have been retained and are listed at end of finding aid.

Subjects of the drawings are actors and actresses in various roles from the Comédie-Française, Comédie-Italienne (Paris, France), and the Drury Lane Theatre (London). Full name of actor is supplied when known. Collection includes portraits of: François Augé, Bellecour, Carlo Antonio Bertinazzo, Brizard, Joseph Caillot, Mlle. Doligny, David Garrick, Marie-Thérèse Villette Laruette, Henri Louis Cain Lekain, François René Molé, and others.

Biographical / Historical

Fäsch was a Swiss painter, illustrator, miniaturist, and portraitist, born in Basel circa 1738 and died in Paris in 1778. Fäsch studied law but soon became a painter. He later moved to Paris and also completed portraits in London. He was known under a number of names including: Jean Louis Fesch and Johann Ludwig Wernhard Faesch, as well as de Fesch, Foech, and Foesch. Fäsch is the first artist to be said with certainty to have drawn his subjects directly from actual performance.

Arrangement

Arranged by bound volume into the following series:

  1. I. Volume I
  2. II. Volume II
  3. III. Volume III
  4. IV. Volume IV
  5. V. Volume V
  6. VI. Volume bindings

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

No accession number. Source unknown, date unknown.

Processing Information

Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt

Title
Fäsch, Johann Ludwig Wernhard, circa 1738-1778. Johann Ludwig Wernhard Fäsch volumes of portrait drawings, circa 1760-1778: Guide.
Author
Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02132

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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