Description:

inscribed in grey pencil (verso): 2 -5- 44? / RSDRMN
red chalk, mounted in an ornamental cartouche
111 mm (circular)

Provenance:

Christie’s, London: 19 April 1988, Lot 79
with Baskett & Day Ltd, London
where acquired by the current owner in April 1988

Note:

This attractive bust-length study of a male youth in profile, receding the right, is an intimate but typical example of the Gaetano Gandolfi’s graphic style. The study was likely made as a preparatory exercise for a painting, although no direct connection to a finished work can be made here. The male figure does not correspond with that of any known painting, although the pose, hair and physiognomy resemble those of a number of female figures in Gandolfi’s paintings from the 1770s, including: the Holy Family which sold at Sotheby’s in June 2015 and its preparatory drawing at the Metropolitan Museum, New York; a second composition of the same subject with Maurizio Nobile, Florence; and The Judgement of Solomon which sold at Sotheby’s in January 2007.