Several years ago we acquired, with the assistance of a rare book dealer in Brussels, a portfolio of drawings on laid paper, many of which are clearly from the same hand and some of which are signed I:D:N (one is signed I:N:D, some are not signed at all, and one is signed "de Neufforge" with a flourish.) According to both Benezit and Thieme-Becker's biographical encyclopedias of artists, Jean-François de Neufforge was born in Comblain-au-Point, Belgium in 1714 and died in Paris on 19 December 1791. According to an article by Claire Baines in the Grove Dictionary of Art (2000), 22: 925, Neufforge, an architect and sculptor, arrived in Paris around 1738 and studied engraving with Pierre Edmé Babel and architecture with Jacques-François Blondel. Although he worked primarily in the Rococo style, he was also interested in classical sculpture and was aware of his contemporaries, particularly François Boucher (1703-1770). Neufforge's great work was the Recueil élémentaire d'architecture containing roughly 900 architectural engravings, nearly all of which he both designed and engraved (published in several parts in 1757-68 and 1772-1780). According to Prof. Baines, "It is a traditional architect's pattern-book but is of unprecedented scope, containing virtually every type of civic and domestic building then known, including such structures as prisons and lighthouses that had only recently been considered worthy of an architect's attention. In addition, it covers such topics as interior decoration, gardens and methods of construction. In his designs for domestic architecture, Neufforge included models to suit every level of patron, from the most modest to the most aristocratic. The designs draw both on antiquity and the High Renaissance, and the Recueil was extensively used as a source-book throughout the late 18th century." Prof. Baines also suggests that his engraving style was formed while engraving plates for Julien-David Le Roy's book, Les Ruines des ples beaux monuments de la Grèce (Paris, 1758), a work to which he may have been drawn by his interest in classical figures or from which he have become interested in classical figures (like Heraclitos, the weeping philosopher, whose imagined portrat he drew at least twice, once in black chalk and once in red, bordered as if for an engraving. Also part of the exhibition are a several drawings that show classical (Cicero) and contemporary orators which we have hung in couterpoint to a drawing of a Roman king and St. Peter, another famed orator (at least in the opening of the Acts of the Apostles). Also in the show are two groups of drawings, one of fashionable aristocratic women with pearls in their hair or around their necks paired with a coy nude and a woman in a mob cap and the other of which is juxtaposes two drawings of a baby (we assume the Christ child) and one of what we think is a drawing similar to Durer's drawing of the figure who appears in his painting of the 12-year old Jesus teaching the elders in the temple along with two drawings of a modestly dressed young woman who would not be out of place in a traditional depiction of the Virgin Mary, either solo or in a group scene.

Our drawings are on thick laid paper with several different watermarks (though some have no watermark at all). Some treat the same subject (often with one signed and one or two others unsigned); some are surrounded by framing lines as if they were presentation drawings or intended for an album, some are not; some seem to be designed as engravings and have a space reserved for a descriptive printed text, some do not. Some are clearly drawn from life; others seem as though they might have been taken from classical or Renaissance sculptures. Some of the drawings have a marvelous liveliness about them, some are more weighty; all are very well done and in very good condition with the exception of the occasional handling crease or stain, mostly invisible when matted. None show signs of having been matted in the past: they seem to have been kept in a leather case and show no signs of either light or mat stain.

The drawings represent another kind of activity. Stylistically, many of the drawings—particularly those of women—show the influence of Boucher and the color crayon noir manner engraving style used to reproduce his works. These engravings, very similar to Woman with turban or Woman with pearl necklace looking down (both on I:D:N: Women) are currently selling for prices up to $10,000 at auction. It is quite possible that some of our drawings were executed as models for such prints.