The Annunciation

Details

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice 1696-1770 Madrid)
The Annunciation
pen and brown ink, brown wash
9¾ x 7¾ in. (245 x 197 mm.)

Provenance

Prince Alexis Orloff; Paris, 29-30 April 1920, lot 72 (5,000 francs).
Madame Z. Birtschansky.

Literature

D. von Hadeln, The Drawings of G.B. Tiepolo, Florence, 1928, p. 27.
A. Morassi, G.B. Tiepolo. His Life and Work, London, 1955, pl. 76.
G. Knox, 'The Orloff Album of Tiepolo Drawings', The Burlington Magazine, 1961, CIII, p. 275, no. 54.

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Cailleux, Tiepolo et Guardi, 1952, no. 50.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Six further drawings depicting the Annunciation were included in the 1920 Orloff sale as lots 70-76, three of which were described by B. Aikema in Tiepolo and his Circle, Drawings in American Collections, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museum and elsewhere, 1996, nos. 22-4. The composition of the present drawing is close to a print of the Annunciation after Abraham Bloemaert which Tiepolo used as a source of inspiration for two small pictures in Wawel Castle in Krakow (B. Aikema, op. cit., figs. 13-4) and in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (A. Pallucchini, L'opera completa di Giambattista Tiepolo, Milan, 1981, no. 35).
Professor Knox, in his 1961 article, dates the present sheet to Tiepolo's Würzburg period, circa 1750-60.

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