CARLO DOLCI
12 Portrait of a Girl
Black and red chalk on cream paper; H: 15.3 cm(6I/i6in.);
W: 12.5 cm (4^7 /sin.)
83.GB.37 4
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom right, collec-
tion mark of Count Gelosi (L. 545).
PROVENANCE: Count Gelosi, Turin; sale, Hotel Drouot,
Paris, December 6, 1982, lot 38; art market, Geneva.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THIS SUBTLE IMAGE MAY BE COMPARED WITH SEVERAL
of the artist's other portraits of women and children, in-
cluding one, done in red chalk, of his wife, now in the
Louvre (inv. H4Q).^1 The directness of expression, emerg-
ing from large, carefully described eyes, is similar in the
two drawings, as are the light and understated graphic
style and the use of a series of zigzagging lines to model
the front of the sitters' dresses. Such lines can be seen even
more clearly in the Head of a Young Boy, also in the Louvre
(inv. H4i).^2 Among the most distinctive elements of the
Museum's drawing is the use of a sensitively integrated
mixture of black and red chalk. Two chalks also were
used in a self-portrait by Dolci in the British Museum,
London (inv. 1899-9-15-577).^3 The oval shape of the
Museum's rendering clearly indicates that it was made
with a painting of the same configuration in mind.1. F. Viatte et al., Dessins baroquesflorentins du Musee du Louvre,
exh. cat., Cabinet des Dessins, Musee du Louvre, Paris, 1981,
no. 114.- Ibid., no. 115.
- N. Turner, Italian Baroque Drawings (London, 1980), no. 52.
44 ITALIAN SCHOOL • DOLCI