Study Of A Horseman Charging , Attributed To Joseph Parrocel (1646–1704)

Attributed to Joseph Parrocel (1646–1704)
Study of a Horseman Charging His Opponent

Black chalk on cream paper

20 × 29 cm

Provenance:
– William Bateson Collection (1861–1926), pioneering British geneticist
– His sale, Sotheby’s, London, 23 April 1929, lot 150
– Private Collection, Netherlands
– Private Collection, France

This dynamic black chalk drawing depicts a cavalryman charging a turbaned opponent—an evocation of Christian-Ottoman conflicts such as the Battle of Vienna (1683). The composition is marked by its sense of movement, anatomical precision, and sculptural presence.

Previously sold at Sotheby’s as a work by Jacques Courtois, recent research points toward a more convincing attribution to Joseph Parrocel, one of the foremost battle painters of Louis XIV’s reign. The pose of the horseman closely matches a painting attributed to Parrocel and sold in 2015, and the influence of Antonio Tempesta is also apparent.

A complete study by art historian François Marandet is available on request.