Dutch School, circa 1700

This lively and accomplished drawing, with its various pentimenti, would seem to be the work of one of the numerous artists from the Netherlands who made their way to Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries.  There are some stylistic similarities with the work of the Dutch Italianates of the earlier generations, such as Adriaen van de Velde and Jan Baptist Weenix, both of whom made superb red chalk figure studies, but the style seems later, as does the paper, with its Pro Patria watermark.  Although no compelling attribution has so far been proposed, the drawing would appear to have been made around the end of the 17th century, or perhaps in the very early 18th.