Live Auction 7744Old Masters & 19th Century Art Day Sale
Marco Ricci (Belluno 1676-1730 Venice)
Lot 116

Marco Ricci (Belluno 1676-1730 Venice)

An extensive view of a port with sailors unloading cargo on a quay

Closed8 July 2009

Price Realised

GBP 25,000

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Marco Ricci (Belluno 1676-1730 Venice)
An extensive view of a port with sailors unloading cargo on a quay
black chalk, watercolour, bodycolour, on dark brown paper
12¼ x 17 7/8 in. (31 x 45.4 cm.)

(Probably) Consul Smith, Venice.
(Probably) King George III, 1762, to his brother
William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1773-1844), and by descent to his daughter
Princess Sophia Mathilda of Gloucester (1773-1844), by inheritance to her nephew
Henry, 5th Duke of Grafton, December 1844 (according to a partly erroneous inscription 'By Marco Ricci Left by Sophia Mathilda Worcester to Henry Duke of Grafton Dec. 1844' on a label attached to the backboard).
with The Connoisseur Inc., New York.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 28 January 2000, lot 36.

Specialist note

The inscription on the label attached to the backboard (which incorrectly reads Worcester rather that Gloucester), indicates that this and the next lot entered the collection of Henry, 5th Duke of Grafton, in 1844 at the death of his aunt Princess Sophia Mathilda, who in turn inherited them from her father, the Duke of Gloucester and brother of King George III. Consul Smith's collection contained 33 drawings by Marco Ricci which were all of the same size and technique as the present sheet. It is most likely that the King presented these two drawings to his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, shortly after he acquired the collection from Smith in 1762 (A. Scarpa Sonino, Marco Ricci, Milan, 1991, nos. 93-124).