Attributed to Pietro Longhi

Private collection, Milan

Laid down on japan paper and window mounted. About nine repaired holes: top and and lower right corners, two in the column to the left and four along the left margin and one at the top left of the central window. These appears to be caused by silverfish. They have been well restaured and are not noticeable. Some yellowish staining along the right margin and top left.
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An interesting and rare view of the interior of a convent parlor, this spirited drawing is very close stylistically to two pen and ink studies bearing a traditional attribution to Pietro Longhi: La Malvasia and The Coffee House, formerly in the John Skippe collection.¹ Those studies are very quickly drawn and are also quite close to the present work in the use of abundant brown wash of two different tonalities.  Here, the central figure of a man wearing a tricorn hat, seated drinking a coffee, is rapidly drawn, and the abbreviations used to indicate his foot and his facial features, almost a caricature, are comparable to the style of Longhi's chalk studies.  A.E. Popham, when cataloguing the Skippe drawings, retained the traditional attribution to Longhi but noted: '...there is some question whether they are not rather by Francesco Guardi, but it is better to retain the traditional ascription.'  A late drawing by Guardi related to his painting, The Parlatorio of S. Zaccaria (Ca' Rezzonico, Venice) is in the Museo Correr, but that drawing shows Guardi's more roccoco approach in the description of the figures.²  Morassi noted, however, that the two painters were in close contact and that often Francesco was inspired by Longhi's example when painting subjects such as this.³ 

Another intriguing link is with Giandomenico Tiepolo, who drew an extremely similar scene, even seen from the same point of view, which is now in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.⁴  The Ottawa drawing is dated 1791, so it is very likely that Giandomenico was inspired by the same composition, possibly a painting now lost.

1.  Sale, London, Christie's, 20-21 November 1958, lots 119-120, pls. 17-18
2.  A. Morassi, Guardi, I Disegni, Venice 1975, p. 113, no. 196, reproduced fig. 199
3.  Ibid., p. 48
4.  A.M. Gealt and G. Knox, Giandomenico Tiepolo, Scene di vita quotidiana a Venezia e nella terraferma, Venice 2005, p. 176, no. 72, reproduced p. 175