Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Guido Reni
The head of a young boy, slightly turned to the right
Auction Closed
July 5, 10:16 AM GMT
Estimate
7,000 - 9,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Guido Reni
Calvenzano di Vergato 1575 - 1642 Bologna
The head of a young boy, slightly turned to the right
Black and red chalk on grey-green paper;
bears an old pen and ink attribution on the backing paper: Guido Reni.
344 by 262 mm
John Spencer, Earl Spencer (1734-1783), (L.1530);
with Galerie Aubry, Paris (Dessins français et italiens du XVIe et du XVIIe siècle, 1971, no. 87, reproduced);
Alfred Normand, (1910-1993), Paris (L.153c), his sale and others, London, Christie's, 6 July 1999, lot 104;
Private collection
Within Reni's graphic oeuvre his studies in coloured chalk have always been particularly popular, and were often framed, to be hung on the walls and admired, very much like paintings.
As Babette Bohn has noted, Reni increasingly combined red, black, and sometimes white chalk in his head studies following his return to Bologna in 1614, after his long sojourn in Rome.1 In the present sheet the bluish-green tint of the paper also provides an attractive background for the broad strokes in black chalk, enhanced by the delicate touches of red chalk.
This sheet bears the rare collector's mark of Nicola Francesco Haym (circa 1679-1729), musician, erudite and collector. Haym published an edition of Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata and Notizia de'libri rari nella lingua italiana (1726). Moreover, he recorded - by drawing them - a great number of antique treasures in the aristocratic English houses that he knew and frequented. These included medals, bronzes, marbles, statues and gems, and in 1719 he published his Tesoro Britannico dell'Antichità greche e latine.
1. B. Bohn, 'Early Writers, Drawings Types and Collecting: Reflections on the Drawings of Guido Reni', in Guido Reni, exhib. cat., Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, 2022-23, p. 67