Charles de Wailly (Paris 1730 - 1798) and Louis-Jean Desprez (Auxerre 1743 - 1804 Stockholm)

This grand and elaborate drawing, depicting a combat in the Temple of Jupiter from the opera, Armide, is a splendid example of a theatrical set design. Executed by two artistic titans of the world of theatre design, Charles de Wailly and Louis-Jean Desprez, it demonstrates the extraordinary imagination and revolutionary ability of these artists to transform the stage into a vast and magnificent panorama.  

Desprez studied in Paris under the draughtsman and engraver Charles Nicolas Cochin. His early work shows the influence of the etchings of Stefano della Bella and Jacques Callot. Shortly after being awarded the Grand Prix de Rome in 1777, he was commissioned to help with the illustrations to the Abbé de Saint-Non's Voyage Pittoresque, ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, along with a number of other young French artists, including Claude-Louis Châtelet.

In 1783 Desprez's work was brought to the attention of the Swedish King, Gustav III, who was looking for someone to take charge of the stage decorations for the historical dramas he was then planning. The King made Desprez an extremely generous offer, and the artist moved to Sweden in 1784. There, despite initially primitive working conditions and much resentment from the resident Swedish artists, his first designs for the première performance of Queen Christina were a sensation, and for ten years he continued to produce magnificent set designs, architectural plans and historical paintings.

Desprez's interest in the theatre was initially sparked when he was a student in Paris in 1768, where he was taught by the architect Charles de Wailly; the two artists collaborated on a number of designs for stage productions. Another set design for the temple but excluding the scene of combat, executed in 1787, by Desprez, is housed in The Teatermuseum, Drottningholms, Sweden.¹ Comparing the drawing in Sweden, executed solely by Desprez, with the present sheet, it is clear that the architecture in this design has been drawn by Charles de Wailly and the figures by Desprez. The handling of the architecture is much freer and more lyrical in the drawing in Sweden, in comparison to the more linear and precise manner seen here.

For more information on Charles de Wailly, see lot 79.

1.  Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Louis Jean Desprez, Tecknare, Theaterkonstnär, Arkitekt, 1992, p. 81, no. 70, reproduced