Watermark: PA over trefoil. Watermark (beta radiograph): PA, trefoil.
Citing the "fleeting, lyrical beauty" of Giambattista's Tiepolo's drawings, art historian Adriano Mariuz has observed that his figures often appear "as though the light were too intense for them to open their eyes fully. It is this sun-filled quality that first strikes us ..., together with the unerring line that yet retains a hint of an improvisatory quiver." On the basis of style, the present drawing, which is not related to any known painting, may be dated to the early 1740s. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Cock, Victor de, former owner.
Doucet, A., former owner.
Sert, José Maria, former owner.
Heinemann, Rudolf J., former owner.
Heinemann, Lore, former owner.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Lore and Rudolf Heinemann. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, no. 38, repr.