Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770
Large Family Portrait. Verso: Study of a seated man holding a large book
10 7/8 x 16 1/2 inches (277 x 418 mm)
Pen and brown ink and brown wash, pen and black ink and wash, over black chalk, on paper; verso: black chalk.
1997.23
Gift of Lore Heinemann, in memory of her husband, Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann.
Notes
This is one of three drawings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo of an unidentified family group posing in a villa garden. The three drawings must have been preparatory for a painted family portrait, but no such painting--or any other portrait of so large a family group--is known to survive. -- Exhibition Label, from "Life Lines: Portrait Drawings from Dürer to Picasso."
This sheet is one of a small number of drawings that depict similar, carefully composed groups of men, women, and children. All presumably were members of the same unidentified aristocratic Venetian family. The drawing belongs to a tradition of family portraiture exemplified in the work of the celebrated sixteenth-century Venetian artist Paolo Veronese, whose paintings Giambattista Tiepolo intensely admired. It may be dated on the basis of style to the late 1750s. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Watermark: Letter A inside shield and possibly another letter in shield. Watermark, transmitted infrared, letter a, shield 142756wm_1997_23_ WM_transmIR.tiff
This sheet is one of a small number of drawings that depict similar, carefully composed groups of men, women, and children. All presumably were members of the same unidentified aristocratic Venetian family. The drawing belongs to a tradition of family portraiture exemplified in the work of the celebrated sixteenth-century Venetian artist Paolo Veronese, whose paintings Giambattista Tiepolo intensely admired. It may be dated on the basis of style to the late 1750s. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Watermark: Letter A inside shield and possibly another letter in shield. Watermark, transmitted infrared, letter a, shield 142756wm_1997_23_ WM_transmIR.tiff
Associated names
Harris, Tomás, 1908-1964, former owner.
Heinemann, Rudolf J., former owner.
Heinemann, Lore, former owner.
Heinemann, Rudolf J., former owner.
Heinemann, Lore, former owner.
Bibliography
Aikema, Bernard. Tiepolo and His Circle : Drawings in American Collections. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Art Museum ; New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1996, no. 72, repr.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
Department