Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

The Library of the Somasco Convent, Sta. Maria della Salute, Venice;
Count Leopold Cicognara, Venice;
Antonio Canova, the sculptor;
his half-brother, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Sartori-Canova;
Francesco Pesaro, Venice;
purchased from the latter in 1842 by Col. Edward Cheney, Badger Hall, Shropshire,
by inheritance to his brother-in-law, Col. Alfred Capel-Cure, Blake Hall, Ongar, Essex,
his sale, London, Sotheby's, 29 April 1885, lot 1024, where acquired by Parsons;
The Earl of Ranfurly; 
P. and D. Conaghi & Co., London;
Richard Owen, Paris;
with P. and D. Colnaghi & Co., London, An Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, 1952, no. 27;
with Mark Brady, New York, Old Master Drawings, 1990, no. 19, reproduced

Pen and ink slightly sunk (drawing appears to have been cleaned). Remains of a little foxing. Small stain to top. Overall effect reasonably good. Sold in a modern carved and gilded frame.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This drawing belongs to a group of at least ninety-three studies of fantastic heads, drawn in pen and wash, of which the majority can be dated to around 1760.  These studies, together with over sixty-seven of the Holy Family, were originally bound in the same album.¹  George Knox suggests that the two series were drawn by Tiepolo at about the same time and bound together for safe-keeping, shortly before his departure for Madrid in 1762.  As Bernard Aikema has pointed out: 'The series were probably intended above all as a store of motifs for the future use of the atelier, and more especially of his sons Domenico and Lorenzo'.²

A set of photographs of the head studies, made while the album was with Richard Owen, is in the Fine Arts Library of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.

1. George Knox, Tiepolo, A Bicentenary Exhibition, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, 1970, p. xiv, no.3.  A fairly concise explanation of the history of the album after the Ranfurly sale is in J. Byam Shaw and G. Knox, The Robert Lehman Collection, Italian Eighteenth Century Drawings, New York 1987, p. 104, under no. 78

2.  B. Aikema et al., Tiepolo in Holland, exhib. cat., Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 1996, p. 90