Anton Kern (Bohemia 1709-1747 Dresden)

The Virgin and Charity

Details

Anton Kern (Bohemia 1709-1747 Dresden)
The Virgin and Charity
with attribution 'Pittoni' and with lot number (from Woodburn sale, see provenance) '31' (on the old mount)
black chalk, red wash, heightened with white
17 x 12½ in. (43.3 x 31.9 cm)

Provenance

Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (1769-1830) (L. 2445).
Samuel Woodburn, London (1786-1853), from the Collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence; Christie's, 4 June 1860, lot 31 'an allegorical subject, PITTONI'; and five others (£1 to Bloxam).
M.H. Bloxam, by whom given to Rugby School Art Museum; with his initials 'M: H: B', inscription and attribution 'Rugby School Art Museum e dono Matt: H: Bloxam/ [Pittoni], Giovanni Battista a d 1690-1767 Vincenza/ Lawrence Collection' (on the mount).

Literature

Anne Popham, typescript catalogue, no. 36, as Giovanni Battista Pittoni.

Exhibited

Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Disegni veneti di collezioni inglesi, 1980, no. 71 (as attributed to Anton Kern; catalogue by J. Stock).

Brought to you by

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Lot Essay

Kern has taken this composition from a detail in a painting by Giovanni Battista Pittoni and others showing The allegorical tomb of the archbishop Tillotson, which exists in a number of versions and in a print after one of these paintings (F. Zava Boccazzi, Pittoni, Venice, 1979, nos. 83, 92, I.19, ill). Kern's early work especially displays a strong dependence on Pittoni, of whose work he made numerous copies. Kern's drawings and paintings are often so close to those by his master that they have been wrongly attributed to him.

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