Carlo Alberto Baratta

With Colnaghi, New York and London, An Exhibition of Master Drawings, June-July 2000, cat. no. 32,
where acquired by Dr. John O'Brien (L.4230),
his sale, New York, Sotheby's, From Taddeo to Tiepolo: The Dr. John O'Brien Collection of Old Master Drawings, 27 January 2021, lot 266;
sale, London, Sotheby's, A Fine Line:  Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries, 7 July 2021, lot 46

M. Newcome Schleier and G. Grasso, Giovanni David, Pittore e incisore della famiglia Durazzo, Turin 2003, p. 11, reproduced fig. S5 (as Carlo Alberto Baratta, The Death of Germanicus (?))

This dramatic baroque drawing, depicting the Death of Hector, is by the Genoese artist, Carlo Alberto Baratta. Baratta was a fresco painter and stage designer as well as a prolific draughtsman and engraver.  His style is extremely reminiscent of his fellow Genoese painter, Giovanni David (1743-1790), whose work had an enormous influence on the slightly younger Baratta.  Mary Newcome Schleier remarks on the similarities between the artists, who both treated their subjects with a certain sensitivity, creating charismatic figures and compositions with vivid and strong effects of colour.