Diaz father and son, collectors of drawings and prints

The collector's stamp ED, which appears on drawings by Bandinelli and Parmigianino, as well as Rembrandt and (Gericault, had not; been identified until today. It is in fact made tip of the initials of Emile Diaz (1835-1860), a painter and poet who died prematurely and who, like his father Narcisse Diaz de la Pena (1807-1876), the great landscape painter of the Barbizon school, was a remarkable collector of drawings and prints. They both frequented the auction rooms in the Rue Drouot and the Rue des Jeuneurs in Paris and this is why the names "Diaz" and sometimes "Diaz son" appear annotated as purchasers in the margins of auction catalogues, such as those of the Feuchere (1853) and Marcille and Thibaudeau (1857) sales. Most of theses drawings were found in the two auctions held on the 4(th) and 5(th) April and on the 6(th) April 1861, both "from the studio of M. Diaz", while a few others came from the sale following the death of Narcisse Diaz in 1877. Moreover, prints that we know belonged to Diaz son, thanks to a mention by Philippe Burty in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1860, also appeared at the 6 April 1861 sale, five months after the poet's death.