Jusepe de Ribera, called lo Spagnoletto

Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Alexander Freund (1833-1917), Strasbourg and Berlin (L.954), his stamp on the old backing sheet,

probably his sale, Amsterdam, 'De Brakke Grond', C.F. Roos and A.G.C. De Vries, 19-21 February 1906, possibly lot 255: 'Fr. Primaticcio. Tête de fou. A la sépia. Hauteur 19.5 cm. Largeur 25 cm.';

Eugène Rodrigues (1853-1928), Paris (L.897),

his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 28-29 November 1928, lot 65 ('École Allemande XVIe Siècle. Mascaron grotesque. Au pinceau, au lavis de bistre. Timbre de la collection W. A.Freund... Cadre XVIe siècle, en ébène. H. 195 - L. 250);

Charles Férault (b. 1877), Paris and Biarritz (L.2793a), his mark faintly stamped at the lower right;

possibly Geneviève Aymonier-Férault, Paris;

sale, Paris, Christie's, 27 March 2003, lot 51 (as Ecole bolonaise, 16ème siècle);

with Jean-Luc Baroni, New York and London (An exhibition of Master Drawings and Oil Sketches), 2005, no. 12, reproduced

N. Turner, 'Another study for Ribera's early Adoration of the Magi', Apollo Magazine, January 2004, p. 32, reproduced fig. 3;

G. Finaldi, 'Dibujos inéditos y otros poco conocidos de Jusepe de Ribera', Boletín del Museo del Prado, 2005, no. 41, p. 42, note 4 ('Esta hoja, fascinate por su iconografía y que probablemente data de los últimos años de la década de 1630, está relacionada con un grupo de dibujos que muestran hombres pequeños trepando sobre grandes figuras...El significando último del tema queda pendiente de un estudio más profundo.');

C. Romalli, 'Alcuni fogli del Seicento: osservazioni sul mercato e disegni in collezioni private, in Le Dessin Napolitain, Actes du colloque international (ed. F. Solinas and S. Schütze), Rome 2010, p. 319;

N. Turner, 'A Grotesque head by Jusepe de Ribera in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford', Master Drawings, vol. 48, 2010, pp. 456-457, reproduced fig. 1, and p. 461, notes 5, 6;

V. Farina, Al sole e all'ombra di Ribera: questioni di pittura e disegno a Napoli nella prima metà del Seicento, Naples 2014, vol. I, pp. 63 and 65-66, reproduced fig. 35;

Idem, 'Ribera's Satirical Portrait of a Nun', Master Drawings, vol. 52 (4), 2014, pp 475-477, reproduced fig. 7, and 480, note 16;

G. Finaldi, Jusepe de Ribera, The Drawings, Catalogue raisonné, Madrid/Dallas 2016, pp. 318-20, no. 132, reproduced, under no. 112, p. 276, and 133, pp. 321-22;

D. Ekserdjian, 'Ribera, the master draughtsman', The Art Newspaper, Review, October 2017, p. 21, reproduced;

M. McDonald, Exhibitions: 'Ribera's drawings,' The Burlington Magazine, May 2017, (CLIX), pp. 424-25 (as not autograph)

Naples, Museo di Capodimonte, et al., ritorno al barocco da caravaggio a vanvitelli, 2009-10, vol. II, p. 62, no. 3.18 (entry by Cristiana Romalli), p. 63, reproduced;

Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Seville, Fondatiòn Focus, and Dallas, Meadows Museum, Jusepe de Ribera, The Drawings, Catalogue raisonné, 2016, (ed. Gabriele Finaldi, texts by Elena Cenalmor, Gabriele Finaldi, Edward Payne) pp. 318-320, no. 132, reproduced