Lot 48
  • 48

Gaetano Gandolfi

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
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Description

  • Gaetano Gandolfi
  • portrait of emidio gandolfi
  • Black and red chalk and stumping;
    signed and inscribed on the verso: G. Gandolfi / Ritratto d'Emidio Gandolfi d'Anni 6;
    numbered in brown ink, lower left: 8 and in black chalk, upper left: A33  

Provenance

New York, et al., Kunsthandel Bellinger, Galerie de Bayser, Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, European Master Drawings, 1994, no. 35;
bought by the present owner from Katrin Bellinger, 1994

Exhibited

Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, et al., Bella Pittura, The Art of the Gandolfi, 1993, no. 100

Literature

M. Cazort, 'Gaetano Gandolfi: Children's Portraits', Festschrift to Erik Fischer, European Drawings from Six Centuries, Copenhagen 1989, p. 92, fig. 4; pp. 93-4; p. 98, note 10;
P. Bagni, I Gandolfi, affreschi dipinti bozzetti disegni, Padua 1992, p. 30, no. 26
K. Bellinger, Master Drawings 1985-2005, London 2005, pp. 112-3, 140, cat. no. 52

Condition

Unframed. Overall in very good condition. The chalk is very fresh. Some traces of pale foxing, visible where the paper is free of chalk. A slight vertical fault in the paper, leading down from the boy's little finger, barely visible. The autograph inscription on the verso is in pen and brown ink. The image in the catalogue illustration is less strong than the drawing appears in reality, particularly in the black chalk. In very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Gandolfi's trois crayons portraits of children, often his own family, are among his most appealing and accomplished works.  The subjects are very charming: round-cheeked, big eyed young boys and girls, often wearing hats or turbans as in this example, and they fill the page in striking compositions.  The medium is perfectly suited to the image, making the drawings more vivacious than the paintings which Gaetano also produced.  It has been remarked that Gaetano may have been influenced by Piazzetta's studies of heads which he could have seen during his Venetian visit in 1760.

The inscription on the back of the drawing, which seems to be in Gaetano's hand, identifies this child as Emidio, the last of his children, born in 1780.  There were seven children in the family, which would have provided Gaetano with a ready supply of models.  Presumably the head studies were not just to be enjoyed by the family but could be sold to collectors as they must have been as popular as Piazzetta's works of this type.  Mimi Cazort, in her important article on the children's portraits, notes that in this drawing there is a slight shift in Gaetano's style: 'In the mid-1780s Gaetano moves toward a technique of describing forms less with pure line and more with streaks and masses of dark, which produces a delicate interplay between broken contour and modelling.'  She also identifies Emidio in another drawing, with his brother Protasio, in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.1

1. M. Cazort, op. cit., p. 93 and fig. 5