- 95
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
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Description
- Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
- a sheet of four head studies: a man wearing a fanciful plumed hat, an oriental, a young boy and a man with a ruff and tall hat
- Pen and brown ink and wash;
bears attribution on the backing sheet: Tiepolo
Provenance
Sale, London, Sotheby's, 27 March 1946, lot 104 (£34 to Hardy for Hatvany);
Baron Paul Hatvany,
his sale, London, Christie's, 24 June 1980, lot 37;
Mr and Mrs Christian Aall,
sale, New York, Christie's, 28 January 1999, lot 76
Baron Paul Hatvany,
his sale, London, Christie's, 24 June 1980, lot 37;
Mr and Mrs Christian Aall,
sale, New York, Christie's, 28 January 1999, lot 76
Catalogue Note
This is very close to a drawing formerly in the Springell collection, as pointed out by James Byam Shaw and George Knox when it was sold in 1999 (see Provenance). Here Tiepolo has put together, in an elegant mise en page, an exotic cast of fantastic heads, two of which, wearing fanciful hats, are seen in profile. The vibrant effect of his penwork and the colorful use of light and shade suggest that this, like many of Tiepolo's virtuoso drawings, was executed for its own sake and probably for his amusement. These sheets are quite rare: in fact Giambattista seems to have been much more inclined to draw single heads than composite studies such as this one.