Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice 1696-1770 Madrid)

The largest group of caricatures by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo comes from an album titled Tomo terzo de caricature, sold in these Rooms, 9 April 1943, lot 244. George Knox has dated these drawings to 1754-1762, a date which may also be applied to the present drawing (Tiepolo. A Bicentenary Exhibition, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, 1970, under no. 87). Some of Giovanni's caricatures were used by his son Domenico in his drawings (see J. Byam Shaw and G. Knox, The Robert Lehman Collection, VI, Italian Eighteenth-Century Drawings, New York, 1987, nos. 97 and 101, ill.).