Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo

Johann Dominik Bossi (1767-1853), a pupil of Giandomenico Tiepolo 
by descent to his daughter, Maria Theresa Karoline (1825-1881), and
her husband Carl Christian Friedrich Beyerlen (1826-1881)
his sale: H.G. Gutekunst, Stuttgart, March 27, 1882
Count G. Rasini
British Rail Pension Fund 
Sale: Sotheby's, London, July 2, 1990, lot 163
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman 

Venice, Giardini, Mostra del Tiepolo, 1951, no. 157
Venice, Cini Foundation, Disegni veneti di collezioni inglesi, 1980, no. 105, illustrated in the catalogue
Norwich, Castle Museum, Old Master Drawings from Venice, October 1984 - March 1985, no. 31;
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Art Museums and New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, Tiepolo and His Circle: Drawings in American Collections, October 12, 1996 - April 13, 1997, no. 114, illustrated in the catalogue

George Knox, Tiepolo:  A Bicentenary Exhibition, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970, under no. 67
Antonio Morassi, "Sui disegni del Tiepolo nelle recenti mostre...,"Arte Veneta, 1970, p. 299, fig. 438
George Knox, Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo:  A Study and catalogue raisonné of the Chalk Drawings, Oxford, 1980, p. 240, no. M.236, pl. 188

Window mounted. Remains of old blue paper tabs adhering to the corners, verso. Overall condition very good and fresh. Sold in a gilded wooden frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A beautiful and rare example of Lorenzo's skillful use of colored chalk, this sheet, surely executed for its own sake as an independent work of art, shows Lorenzo’s ability as draughtsman at its very best.  His brilliantly handled, stylish head studies of this type are the works in which this youngest member of the Tiepolo family expressed most effectively his technical and compositional talent and inventiveness.  Another portrait by Lorenzo of the same young boy, his head turned to the left, is in the Pierpont Morgan Library (fig. 1).  That drawing is executed only in black chalk heightened with white chalk, but displays the same vibrant use of the media and vigorous draughtsmanship as the present sheet; in the latter, though, the pictorial intensity is further enriched by the use of stumping and the touches of color.  Another drawing of the head of a young boy, this time shown with his right arm and hand covering part of his face, and drawn in red and black chalk with stumping, is in a private collection.  In that drawing, although the handling is also vigorous and powerful, the media that Lorenzo has chosen allow for sfumato effects, and very subtle and warm tonal variations and transitions, affording the artist another, rather different, mode of expression. Like the present sheet, it bears an old attribution to Lorenzo on the verso.  

The other inscription on the reverse of the Taubman drawing is the numbering associated with the Bossi-Beyerlen collection, which is also found on Lorenzo’s drawing of The Head of an Oriental, formerly in the Ratjen collection and now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (inv. 2007. 111.173G).  As George Knox has described, the drawings with these numberings descended from the Tiepolo family to Giandomenico’s pupil, Giovanni Domenico Bossi (1767-1853), the last royal Bavarian court painter, and then to his daughter, wife of the Secretary Beyerlen in Stuttgart.  She and her husband both died in 1881, and the collection was sold at auction in Stuttgart, on 27 March 1882. The pen and ink numberings inscribed on the back of all the drawings with this provenance relate to their prices (George Knox, op. cit., Oxford, 1980, vol. I, pp. 200-207).

The Morgan drawing is dated by Knox to circa 1754-62, a dating that must also apply to this brilliantly accomplished portrait study of the same sitter.