A bearded man, seated, his left arm raised

Details

JACOPO NEGRETTI, PALMA IL GIOVANE (VENICE 1548-1628)
A bearded man, seated, his left arm raised
with number ‘18’ (upper left on the mount)
black chalk heightened with white, on blue paper
30.4 x 17.9 cm (12 x 7 in.)

Provenance

Carl Robert Rudolf (1884-1974), London (L. 2811b); Sotheby's, London, 4 July 1977, part II, lot 11 (catalogue by S.M. Rinaldi).
with Day and Faber, London; acquired in 2001.
Jeffrey E. Horvitz, Boston; Sotheby’s, New York, 23 January 2008, lot 6.

Literature

S.M. Rinaldi, Palma il Giovane. L’Opera completa, Milan, 1984, no. D.105, ill. and under nos. 260-263.
M. Riccioni, Palma il Giovane. La decorazione del coro nel duomo di Salò. Una riforma nella pittura bresciano del Seicento, Roccafranca, 2008, ill. p. 71.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Drawings by Old Masters, 1953, no. 95 (as Jacopo Tintoretto).

Special Notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice. Christie’s has a direct financial interest in this lot. Christie’s has guaranteed to the seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Stefano Franceschi Specialist

sfranceschi@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7752 3103

Lot Essay

This powerful study was once considered the work of Jacopo Tintoretto. It was first recognized as a work by Palma by Stefania Mason Rinaldi in the second part of the 1977 catalogue for the collection of C.R. Rudolf (see Provenance). She was able to relate the drawing to one of the apostles witnessing the Assumption of the Virgin in the apse of the cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata in Salò on Lake Garda, on which Palma started working in early 1602; it was completed by August of the same year (Mason Rinaldi, op. cit., no. 259, fig. 367; and Riccioni, op. cit.). One of few studies known for the decoration in Salò, the sheet – a chalk study in contrast to the vast majority of Palma’s studies, which are executed in pen and wash – achieved one of the highest prices in the sale of Rudolf’s celebrated group of drawings by the artist.

More from Old Master and British Works on Paper: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints 1500-1900

View All