An Important Portrait Miniature of Sebastiano Ricci, facing right in gold-bordered mole-coloured coat, burnt umber velvet cloak draped across his left shoulder, full bottomed powdered curling wig

Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) was one of the first itinerant Venetian painters who worked in Bologna, Rome, Modena, Florence and Parma before going to Vienna where he worked in the Schönbrunn Palace. In 1712 he went to England with his nephew, Marco (see lot 222) but they did not win the commission to decorate the dome of St. Paul's and Hampton Court Palace. However they painted an imaginary Tomb of the Duke of Devonshire as part of the Whig propaganda series. Ricci's most celebrated English work is the Resurrection painted in the apse of Chelsea Hospital Chapel, London and the chapel at Bulstrode for the Duke of Portland. He began the decoration of Burlington House but left it to be completed by William Kent and returned to Venice via Paris in 1718 where he was made a member of the Académie Royale. He spent the rest of his years in Venice.
A slightly later pastel portrait of the same sitter by Rosalba is in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe (illustrated in Sani, op. cit., pl. 133, catalogue no. 159). Another similar pastel of an unknown sitter is in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (cf. Sani, op. cit., no. 191, illustrated pl. 167).