- Museum number
- 1885,0509.1672
- Description
-
Head of a bearded man in profile to left
Oil, over black chalk
- Production date
- 1753-1762 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 360 millimetres
-
Width: 284 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Edward Cheney owned a huge quantity of drawings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: his sale had nine volumes of sketches by him (lot 1024 sold for £15-0-0) which included seven of 'figures, costumes, studies for pictures, landscapes, architecture, &c' as described in lot 1029 printed on a slip of paper and pasted into the BM copy of the catalogue. Perhaps due to the unusual oil on paper technique of the present work it was included as a separate lot in the sale. Cheney owned an album of pen-and-wash character heads dated to the period following his return from Germany in 1753 and his departure to Madrid in 1762 (for example the Middle Eastern bearded figures in the BM, 1928,1110.27 and 28) and the present experimental work probably dates from the same period.
The unusual medium of this drawing makes comparison difficult with the general graphic production of the Tiepolo family, and for this reason it would be foolish to be overly dogmatic as to its attribution. Therefore the possibility that it is by Domenico, Lorenzo or indeed a non-family member of the Tiepolo studio should be considered. Of all the Tiepolo it is Domenico rather than his father who seems to have more frequently drawn with the brush alone. An example of such a drawing in brush, admittedly in wash rather than oil, with a head in profile of comparable morphology, especially as regard the bulbous nose, is the ex-Heinemann 'Two Orientals' (see J. Bean and F. Stampfle, in exhib. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Drawings from New York Collections, III, the Eighteen Century in Italy', no. 250). Examples of Domenico dry brush oil drawings of heads include a 'Profile of an old man' in the Albertina (30.387) and less certainly a Castiglione-inspired 'Bearded turbaned man, bust length' in the Seilern collection, Courtauld Institute (D.1978.PG.169; A. Seilern, 'Italian Paintings and Drawings at 56 Princes Gate London SW7', London, 1959, no. 169, pl. CXXX as Giovanni Battista (?) Tiepolo, attributed to Domenico by James Byam Shaw, 'The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo', London, 1962, p. 61, n. 2). A well-known example of an oil on paper by Giovanni Battista is the 'Head of a bearded man in a fur hat' from the Albertina, Vienna (inv. 1819), which is executed in diluted brown oil paint.
HC
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1991 Sept-Nov, Bristol AG, 'Primacy of Drawings', no. 133
1991 Nov-Dec, Stoke on Trent AG, 'Primacy of Drawings', no. 133
1992 Jan-Feb, Graves AG, Sheffield, 'Primacy of Drawings', no. 133
- Acquisition date
- 1885
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1885,0509.1672