Old Master & British Works on Paper including works from the Collections of Carlos Alberto Cruz and the late Timothy Clowes

Pablo de Céspedes

Three Studies: A) Head of a man in profile B) Two head studies C) Group of figures, some wearing turbans

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Lot Closed

September 23, 01:01 PM GMT

Estimate

800 - 1,200 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Pablo de Céspedes

Córdoba 1538 - 1608

Three Studies:

A) Head of a man in profile

B) Two head studies

C) Group of figures, some wearing turbans

All point of the brush and brown wash and pen and brown ink

A) 55 by 40 mm; B) 48 by 56 mm; C) 82 by 100 mm

(3)

Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818 – 1878),
thence by inheritance to his son, Brigadier-General Archibald Stirling (1867 – 1931),
by descent to his heirs;
With Simon Dickinson, 1995,
where acquired by the present owner

These small but powerful studies, vigorously executed with point of the brush and pen and ink are stylistically similar to Céspedes' double sided drawing, depicting The Adoration of the Magi (recto) and Ministering Angels (verso), in the Chaveau Vasconcel Collection, Barcelona.¹The handling of the pen and ink is comparable as well as the distinct way the artist renders his faces in profile, see for example the figure towards the back of the group of figures with turbans, in this lot, and the profile of the figure on the recto of the Barcelona sheet, kneeling in the foreground.

Other similar studies of a nude man holding a dagger, a head of a bearded man and a figure of Bacchus were sold at Sotheby's in 1963.²

1. D. Angulo & A.E. Pérez Sanchez, A Corpus of Spanish Drawings, Volume One, 1400-1600, London 1975, p. 37, no. 120, reproduced pl. XXXVII

2. Sale, London, Sotheby's, 21 October 1963, lot 25