Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D , Case SCX, Shelf 10

Route de Casbinn à Téhéran Effet de neige

Drawing
1848 (drawn)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In 1846, the French government decided to send a mission to Persia, an expedition, led by the geographer Xavier Hommaire de Hell, to carry out further investigations. Laurens, a young artist who had studied in the studio of the painter Paul Delaroche, was employed to record the course of their journey in a series of images that, after his return in 1849, were used to illustrate Hommaire de Hell's Voyage en Turquie et en Perse (4 vols and atlas, 1854-60). Despite the rigours of the journey and an attack of fever, Laurens filled several sketch-books with his drawings of the people and landscapes they encountered. This one was made in February 1848, as they neared Tehran on the road from Qazvin, in temperatures well below zero (-240 was recorded one day). Despite the physical discomfort, Laurens's sensitive draughtsmanship is well illustrated in the carefully observed detail and gentle rhythms of this composition.


Object details

Category
Object type
Titles
  • Route de Casbinn à Téhéran Effet de neige (assigned by artist)
  • The road from Qazvin to Tehran, a snowy landscape (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil, on thin paper
Brief description
Drawing, `Route de Casbinn à Téhéran Effet de neige', 1848, by Jules-Joseph-Augustin Laurens
Physical description
Drawing
Dimensions
  • Height: 25.2cm
  • Width: 42.5cm
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
Signed Jules Laurens; inscribed with title and dated 1848
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A
Object history
According to Rodney Searight: - `Bt via Crenshaw, Oct.1977, Fr.1600 ' [francs]
Historical context
For a version of this view, see Pl. LVII, titled Téhéran, in I.M.X.Hommaire de Hell, Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, 4 vols., Paris, 1854-60. The journey, in temperatures well below freezing, between Qazvin and Tehran, in February 1848, is described in Hommaire de Hell, Voyage..., Vol. 3, Ch.XVII.
Subject depicted
Places depicted
Summary
In 1846, the French government decided to send a mission to Persia, an expedition, led by the geographer Xavier Hommaire de Hell, to carry out further investigations. Laurens, a young artist who had studied in the studio of the painter Paul Delaroche, was employed to record the course of their journey in a series of images that, after his return in 1849, were used to illustrate Hommaire de Hell's Voyage en Turquie et en Perse (4 vols and atlas, 1854-60). Despite the rigours of the journey and an attack of fever, Laurens filled several sketch-books with his drawings of the people and landscapes they encountered. This one was made in February 1848, as they neared Tehran on the road from Qazvin, in temperatures well below zero (-240 was recorded one day). Despite the physical discomfort, Laurens's sensitive draughtsmanship is well illustrated in the carefully observed detail and gentle rhythms of this composition.
Collection
Accession number
SD.554

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Record createdFebruary 23, 2008
Record URL
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