Online Auction 19981Old Master & British Drawings
GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO (Venice 1696-1770 Madrid)
Lot 11PROPERTY FROM THE JAMES AND MARILYNN ALSDORF COLLECTION

GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO (Venice 1696-1770 Madrid)

A seated woman seen from below

Closed28 January 2022

Price Realised

USD 21,250

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GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO (Venice 1696-1770 Madrid)
A seated woman seen from below
pen and brown ink, brown wash
6 1⁄2 x 7 1⁄4 in. (16.3 x 18.5 cm)

Probably given by the artist or his son Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804) to
Somaschi convent at Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, where the former’s son Giuseppe Maria Tiepolo lived ; after the suppression of the convent to 1810 to
Count Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1834), Venice.
Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Venice; by his descent to his half-brother,
Monsignor Giovanni Battista Sartori Canova (1775-1858), Venice.
Francesco Pesaro (1740-1799), Venice; sold by him to in 1842 to
Edward Cheney (1803-1884), Badger Hall, Shropshire; by descent to his brother-in-law
Colonel Alfred Capel-Cure (1826-1896), Blake Hall, Essex; Sotheby’s, London, 29 April 1885, part of lot 1024 (bought in); Christie’s, London, 14 July 1914, part of lot 49.
with E. Parsons, London.
Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950), London (L. 2274a).
with M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1945.

Specialist note

This kind of figure, floating in the sky and without specific attributes, is recurrent in Tiepolo’s drawn œuvre. The artist would effortlessly sketch them on paper and then employ them to fill his expansive fresco ceiling decorations. Drawings of this type can in general be traced back to an album entitled Sole figure per soffitti, which surfaced in 1914 at a Christie's sale after a distinguished provenance and before it was dismembered.

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