European Drawings - 1, Catalogue of the Collections

ANNIBALE CARRACCI

8 Three Studies of Men and One

of Saint John theEvangelist

r

Three Studies of Men

v

Black chalk (recto); black and red chalk (verso); H: 27.7
cm (io^7 /s in.); W: 20.7 cm (8 Vs in.)
85.GB.2l 8
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left, blind stamp
of Sir Thomas Lawrence (L. 2445); at bottom right, col-
lection marks of Jonathan Richardson, Sr. (L. 2184),
Lord Francis Egerton, first earl of Ellesmere (L. 27iob),
Alain Delon.

PROVENANCE: Uvedale Price, Foxley; Thomas Dims-
dale, London; Sir Thomas Lawrence, London; Lord
Francis Egerton, first earl of Ellesmere, London; by de-
scent to the sixth duke of Sutherland (sale, Sotheby's,
London, July n, 1972, lot 44); Alain Delon, Geneva.

EXHIBITIONS: The Lawrence Gallery, Sixth Exhibition,
Woodburn's Gallery, London, 1836, no. 65. ijth Century
Art in Europe, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1938,
no. 375. Drawings by Carracci and Other Masters, P. andD.
Colnaghi, London, 1955, no. 26. Mostradei Carracci, Di-
segni, Palazzo dellArchiginnasio, Bologna, September-
October 1956, no. 221 (catalogue by D. Mahon). The
Carracci: Drawings and Paintings, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
November-December 1961, no. 73 (catalogue by R.
Holland).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Catalogue of the Ellesmere Collection of
Drawings at Bridgewater House (London, 1898), no. 71;
P. A. Tomory, The Ellesmere Collection of Old Master
Drawings (Leicester, 1954), p. 24, no. 56; D. Posner, An-
nibale-Carracci (London, 1971), vol. i, pp. 21, 64; 156, no.
54 ; 164, no. 84.

THE RECTO OF THIS DRAWING FIRST CONSISTED OF A

tracing by Annibale of the figure of Saint John the Evan-

gelist, copied from Correggio's fresco in the cathedral of

Parma. Annibale then drew over this a series of several

heads, repeating the man in profile. The boy with his

head in his hands was engraved together with the upper

profile by Arthur Pond in 1747 as one of his collected car-

icatures. The images of the man in profile and of the two

boys are among the most striking of Annibale's early nat-

uralistic portraits. They belong to a group that includes

a number of paintings and several drawings—for ex-

ample, the brilliant studies of a boy and a girl in the Met-

ropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 1972.13 3.3).*

Like the studies in New York, the Getty Museum's sheet

appears to date from the mid-i58os. Its relatedness to the

drawing of the boy in New York is enhanced by one of

the figures on the newly uncovered verso. The young

boy resting on his arms appears to represent the same

model as the drawing in New York. In addition to an-

other study of a man with a hat, perhaps showing the

same model as on the recto but full-face, there is also a

remarkably abstract red chalk study of a man.^2

1. J. Bean, ijth Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Mu-

seum of Art (New York, 1979), no. 97.

2. The verso was first revealed in New York late in 1985 when

the sheet was lifted from its mount by Alexander Yow.

34 ITALIAN SCHOOL • CARRACCI