Pier Leone Ghezzi (Rome 1674-1755)

Ghezzi is best known for his witty caricatures of aristocrats, clergy and artists which he sold during his lifetime. Three albums containing such drawings passed down to his widow and were later owned by King Carlos III of Spain and the 1st Duke of Wellington, and by descent to the 7th Duke of Wellington, until they were sold in 1971. Two of the albums have now been broken up and dispersed, examples from which can be found, for example, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see J. Bean and W. Griswold, 18th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, nos. 68-71, ill.), while an album containing 64 caricatures is in the Morgan Library and Museum, New York (inv. 1978.27).