Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Il Bolognese (Bologna 1606-1680 Rome)

The tall and narrow format of this sheet is typical of Grimaldi’s drawings: along with the artist’s characteristic neat penwork, it can be found in two drawings in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (inv. RCIN 906145 and RCIN 906156; see O. Kurz, Bolognese Drawings of the XVII and XVIII Centuries at Windsor Castle, London, 1955, nos. 309 and 314, pl. 47) and that sold at Christie’s, New York, 30 January 2018, lot 33. Similar vertical landscapes can also be found in the artist’s prints (J.T. Spike, The Illustrated Bartsch, XLII, Italian Masters of the Seventeenth Century, New York, 1981, nos. XIX.91.12, XIX.92.15, ill.).