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This is a painting of a marmot-like animal with purple and red plums on a gray stone surface. The animal is seen from the side, facing the left, with one foot on a small rock. It has brown and gray fur with round, dark eyes and long, white teeth. In the bottom right corner, there is a cluster of plums on a branch with dried brown leaves. The background is plain beige paper, and there is a gold outline around the painting.
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This is a painting of a marmot-like animal with purple and red plums on a gray stone surface. The animal is seen from the side, facing the left, with one foot on a small rock. It has brown and gray fur with round, dark eyes and long, white teeth. In the bottom right corner, there is a cluster of plums on a branch with dried brown leaves. The background is plain beige paper, and there is a gold outline around the painting.

National Gallery of Art · Drawing

A Groundhog or Marmot with a Branch of Plums

Jacopo Ligozzi

Date
1605
Medium
watercolor and ink with white gouache over traces of graphite on burnished laid paper
Dimensions
sheet: 33 x 42.3 cm (13 x 16 5/8 in.) (paper edge slightly covered by the old mount)
Classification
Drawing
Accession number
2007.111.121
Credit line
Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Purchased as the Gift of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke
Time span
1601 to 1650
Department
CG-E
Original NGA record Wikidata Print information

Subjects and terms

  • Italian
  • Fruit
  • animal
  • Marmot
Provenance

(sale, Sotheby's London, 13 December 1973, no. 23); Herbert List [1903-1975] (Lugt 4063), Munich; Ursula and Adolf Ratjen, Vaduz, for Wolfgang Ratjen; Wolfgang Ratjen [1943-1997], Vaduz and Munich; purchased 2007 by NGA.

Inscription

signed and dated on stone ledge to the left of the marmot's tail, dark brown ink, JACOPO LIGOZZI FACIEBAT.1605.; verso, upper left, black ink, 416; verso upper center, graphite, signed iacopo Ligozzi faciebat 1605; verso upper right, graphite, S23/3600

NGA object ID 139309. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.