Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Philippe Burty (1830-1890), Paris (L. 2071);

with Jacques Petithory, Paris, by 1988

Andrew Robison has dated the present study to the mid-1740s, also observing that 'the size of paper and the medium used, red chalk, are both characteristic of Piranesi's figure drawings from the mid 1740s to the mid 1760s.'¹

Vigorously drawn in red chalk, this lively sheet seems to sketch random figures observed in everyday life. Piranesi's figure studies are among the most lively and amusing of all the artist's drawings, and most are surely studies from a life that the artist must have sketched constantly. Often there are no clues regarding setting, and the present sheet is no exception. l

¹Email to the owner dated 17^th November 2016