There has long been confusion regarding the attribution of the large number of drawings in red (or, in some cases, black) chalk on blue paper that are connected with works painted by Giambattista Tiepolo in the early 1750s. The figures in this drawing, for example, correspond to a passage in the ceiling fresco that Giambattista painted in 1754-55 in the church of Santa Maria della Pietà, Venice. It would nevertheless appear that this sheet and others like it are copies (or record drawings) made not by Giambattista but by his son Domenico for future use in the Tiepolo studio. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Inscribed on verso, in pen and brown ink, "f. L. G. J. N-3260 // 173"; numbered in graphite, "743 // 61 // 8".
Bossi, Giovanni Domenico, former owner.
Bossi, Maria Theresa Caroline, 1825-1881, former owner.
Beyerlen, Carl Christian Friedrich, 1826-1881, former owner.
Habich, Edward, 1818-1901, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Aikema, Bernard. Tiepolo and His Circle : Drawings in American Collections. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Art Museum ; New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1996, no. 109, repr.