Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo

With Manuel Gónzalez, La Galeria Velazquez, Madrid, Exposición Extraordinaria de Pintura. Siglos XV al XX., 1972, p. 64, reproduced.

N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition, p. 3, no. J.716.137.

 This vibrant and expressive head study, combining vivid hues of blues and red, is a fine example of Lorenzo Tiepolo’s work in pastel. The artist’s father, Giovanni Battista and brother, Domenico, both played an influential role in his career with Lorenzo taking inspiration from works they executed. The use of pastel, however, appears to be unique to Lorenzo, who employed the medium early in his artistic œuvre.

In 1750, Lorenzo accompanied his father and elder brother to Würzburg to assist them with their commissions. He returned to Venice in 1753 where he remained until leaving for Spain, again with his father and brother, in 1762. He later married a Spanish girl and lived in Madrid for the rest of his life, receiving extensive royal patronage. One of his earliest recorded works is a very accomplished pastel portrait of his mother, Cecilia Guardi, now in Venice, Ca' Rezzonico, signed and dated 1757.¹  When he moved to Spain, he developed a different style, bolder in colouring, with more solid and rounded figures, influenced, most probably, by the example of Mengs.

The present pastel is very much based on and inspired by Giovanni Battista’s series of head studies in oil, painted circa 1757–59 and on Domenico’s Teste etchings, published between 1770 and 1774. This distinguished head study does not directly relate to any of the heads produced in either aforementioned series, but the strong contrasts in the colouring and the more direct gaze, which makes it resemble a real portrait, are characteristic of Lorenzo's work from his Venetian period.

¹ Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Lorenzo Tiepolo, 1999, p. 130, no. 26, reproduced.