Head of a sleeping child, with another fainter study below (recto); and Portrait bust of a woman (verso)

The two delicate studies of the Head of sleeping child on this sheet were at some point attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, as indicated by the (now barely visible) inscriptions near the upper and lower right corners. Later on, when the drawing was in the Marquis de Valori’s collection, it was described as Alessandro Allori (1535-1607). A copy after the drawing, reproducing only the main head study, was once in the collection of the sculptor Thomas Banks (1735-1805) and later in that of William Ottley (1771-1836). More recently the latter sheet was on the market with an attribution to the 18th Century Florentine artist Domenico Gabbiani (Christie’s, London, 28 March, 1972, lot 139). The present drawing is mounted on thin cardboard, on the back of which is pasted a second sheet, A Portrait bust of a woman, that appears to be by the same hand. The latter drawing was also ascribed to Allori and described, in the Valori catalogue, as an African woman.