Henry de TRIQUETI (1803-1874) Design for the "Yates memorial": Sleeping child Black stone on tracing paper Signed and captioned lower right "Pour le Yates memorial" ("For the Yates memorial") 32.5 x 33 cm The tracing is lined, with small stains and a small tear at top left. Provenance: Château du Perthuis. Note: In 1870, Charles Hare, professor of medicine, commissioned a panel from Triqueti for the Yates Memorial at University College Hospital, London, in honor of benefactor Edward Yates. The tarsia technique was again employed, almost entirely in white Carrara marble. The primacy of drawing was not an empty word for Triqueti, who subordinated all the arts he practiced to it. Sculptor, painter, writer and artistic advisor to the Duc d'Aumale, Triqueti is also known in the world of old drawings as a famous collector of drawings and engravings. Through his wife, he inherited the important collection of Thomas Banks (also a sculptor and collector), which included many drawings by Renaissance masters. A regular visitor to the Hôtel Drouot, Triqueti rubbed shoulders with a circle of illustrious collectors and curators such as His de La Salle (1795-1878) and Frédéric Reiset (1815-1891). Triqueti took his first steps as an artist under the aegis of Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, a family friend and neighbor. Triqueti demonstrated a perfect mastery of the art of drawing. He deploys every facet of drawing, depending on its purpose or the work's destination. Extremely precise in his drawings and copies, he uses a finely-sharpened pencil. He scratches with a feather in his search for compositions and decorations, multiplying variants and options. He can be powerful in his contours, in a Géricaldian vein, or content himself with a fine, thin line for his ornamental subjects. He sometimes drew in sanguine, particularly for academic studies and portraits. His highly finished watercolors are absolutely limpid and distant, imitating to perfection the rendering he aims to achieve in his "tarsia".