Although the Venetian artist Palma Giovane was not primarily a portrait painter, his drawn self-portraits-like the drawings he made of his family and friends-were rendered with great immediacy and naturalism. This quick sketch, featuring Palma's characteristic short pen strokes, shows the artist with a faintly melancholic expression. The inscription records the date, 11 November 1606, and the artist's age, fifty-eight.- Exhibition Label, from "Life Lines: Portrait Drawings from Dürer to Picasso."
Inscribed at upper center, in red chalk, "1606 11 novembre / jacobus palma", beneath this, in pen and brown ink, "etati ano / 58"; at upper left, in pen and brown ink, "P"; at lower left, in pen and brown ink, "AP (elided)"; on verso, at top, in pen and brown ink, "adi il 7 di febraro 1608 / cdia[....] a giulia ongia doi p[er] / spindia nelli servizi deli comisio[o superscript] / di crizia Sazolitti nel p[symbol] 20".
Watermark: Letters "A9"?
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
John Marciari, Drawing in Tintoretto's Venice, New York, 2018, fig. 170, repr.