Giovanni Francesco Castiglione

Jonathan Richardson Junior (1694-1771), London (L.2170), his mount with inscription: 'Bend°. Castiglione';

Paul Sandby (1725-1809), London (L.2112);

Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo,

thence by descent to Mrs. Peter Somervell;

sale, London, Sotheby's, 28 March 1968, lot 70 (as Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione to Calmann);

sale, New York, Christie's, 23 January 2002, lot 30,

where acquired

A. Percy, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Master Draughtsman of the Italian Baroque, exhib. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1971, under no. 118

This energetically drawn sheet is related to a signed oil painting by Giovanni Francesco Castiglione, the location of which is presently unknown but which formerly belonged in the Balbi di Piovera collection, Genoa.¹A further pen study by Giovanni Francesco for the same painting is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art,² while a third drawing, very close in handling to our sheet, was the preceding lot to the present drawing in the 1968 sale (see Provenance).

1. see A. Percy, op. cit., p. 43, fig. 36

2. Ibid., fig. 118