Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Paul Delaroff, St. Petersburg (his mark twice on the verso);
with Galerie Cailleux, Paris, from whom purchased in 1966 and then by descent to the present owner

The sheet is window mounted. Overall condition fresh and good. Some small losses at both top corners. Slight trace of an old fold, not very visible, underneath the nose of the oriental . Small stains at the right bottom corner and in the middle of the bottom edge from old hinges. The sheet was previously hinged at all four corners, and there is some thinning of the paper in these places, visible from the verso. Some of the stronger lines of the drawing on verso show through a little on the recto. The drawing is mounted, and sold in a carved and gilded regency frame.
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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."

This very handsome study of the head of an oriental is very similar to another by Giambattista, in red chalk and red wash, in the Fogg Art Museum.¹  George Knox dates the Fogg drawing circa 1760 and suggests that it was etched by Giandomenico as part of the series Raccolta di Teste, which consists of two groups of thirty etchings each (fig. 1).  Stylistically a dating of circa 1760 could also be applied to this very quick and skilful pen and wash drawing.  Knox has proposed the same dating for similar pen and wash heads and for the series of variations on the theme of The Holy Family.² 

On the verso are a number of quick sketches vigorously drawn in pen and brown ink, possibly studies for the body of the dead Christ in a Lamentation or Deposition.  Giambattista seems to have treated this subject a few times in his career, also around 1760, see for instance The Deposition in the National Gallery, London (circa 1750-60), a work that Morassi described as influenced by Rembrandt's Deposition, and which was in Consul Smith's Collection in Venice until 1762.³

Paul Delaroff (1851-1913) assembled a very important Old Master Paintings collection in St Petersburg, which was sold after his death in Paris by George Petit, 23-24 April 1914.

1. G. Knox, Tiepolo, A Bicentenary Exhibition, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, 1970, no. 94, reproduced 

2. loc. cit.

3. A. Morassi, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G.B. Tiepolo, London 1962, p. 17, reproduced fig. 59