Francesco Guardi

H.N. Bier, London;
Dr and Mrs Hugh Squire;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 11 December 1975, lot  42, recto reproduced p. 60

A. Morassi, Guardi, Tutti i Disegni, Venice 1975, p. 112, no. 194, recto reproduced fig. 195

Trace of an old fold running across below the head and a few creases. Slight scattered foxing. Oil staining on the verso bottom left, two stains coming through the recto but not visible as partly disguised by the brown wash - they appear to be part of the drawing. The oval edges in some ways irregular. On the verso paper from a modern hinge is still stuck to the right side.
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Antonio Morassi (loc.cit.) associates the present study with other drawings by Francesco Guardi which he catalogues as Teste di Fantasia.  He writes that this, like a few others in the group, is inspired by official portraiture of the sixteenth century.  Our study can be closely related to a drawing of a Venetian dignitary, also an oval and similar in media and size, now in the Correr Museum, Venice.¹ The figures on the verso are totally characteristic of the artist.

1.  See Morassi, op.cit., no. 192, reproduced fig. 194