AGOSTINO CARRACCI | Recto: Seated female figure holding an apple, with two children and a dog;Verso: Studies of a crouching woman leaning forward, and of a male head and face

Richard Cosway (1740-1821), Londres (L.628) ;
Jacques Petithory (1929-1992) ; 
Louis-Antoine et Véronique Prat, Paris (L.3617) ; 
Acquis par échange en 1980.

Paris, Galerie Claude Aubry, Dessins du XVIᵉ siècle dans les collections privées françaises, 1971, n°28 ;
Rennes, 2012, n°13 (notice par Catherine Loisel)

C. Loisel, Gli affreschi dei Carracci, Studi e disegni preparatori, Bologne, 2000, pp.125-6, repr. fig. 91 (recto), p. 129, repr. pl. 34 (verso)

Window mounted. Minor losses and thin spots down right edge of sheet. Light brown stain above children, and in top right corner, recto. Ink has eaten into the paper in a few places (recto: in woman's mouth and hand, and in left putto's ear). Some damage to nose of male figure, verso. The various ink studies show through somewhat to the other side. Condition otherwise good, and ink generally strong. Sold unframed.
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An elegant and mannered double sided sheet by Agostino Carracci, the Adrien drawing was dated by Catherine Loisel in her Rennes exhibition catalogue entry to the second half of the 1590s, and stylistically linked to the artist’s late career. Through the early part of this decade, the Carracci continued to work very much as a team, and their fame quickly spread beyond Bologna. They began to receive prestigious commissions from important patrons and rulers of nearby states, starting with the Este family of Ferrara in the early 1590s.  Then, in 1594, Annibale and Agostino were called by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese to Rome to paint for him in the family palace.  Agostino’s intermittent presence in Rome from 1595 onwards was highly important in defining his subsequent artistic path.  Quarrels with his brother Annibale led to Agostino’s departure from Rome, although he continued in the service of the Farnese, working in Parma from 1600 until his death, for the Duke Ranuccio Farnese, on the frescoes of the Palazzo del Giardino. Agostino’s return to Parma reawakened in him an appreciation for Emilian mannerist works and as Catherine Loisel points out, the Adrien sheet must date from these late years, when the style of his drawings can sometimes lead to confusion with the works of artists such as Francesco Salviati (1510-1563), Perino del Vaga (1501-1547), and even Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585).

The freely drawn female figure on the recto, perhaps Helen of Sparta, is defined by fluid pen and ink lines, enriched with delicately applied grey wash.  It is strongly reminiscent of the elongated female figures seen in the work of the Parmese artist, Jacopo Bertoia (1544-1574), who had worked between the 1560s and the 1570s in the Mirola equipe at the Palazzo del Giardino, and whose frescoes, and possibly also drawings, must have been familiar to Agostino.

On the verso, the figure of a maiden crouching holding a dish is executed with a robust and secure handling of the black chalk, showing Agostino’s dexterity and versatility in the use of different techniques.  So far, neither side of this fascinating drawing has been connected with any known painting by the artist.

For another drawing by Agostino Carracci in the Adrien collection, see lot 45.