Lot Essay
The studies for the head and hands on the recto are for the two figures standing on the left of The Baptist preaching in the Louvre, as pointed out by Hugh Macandrew in a letter dated June 1979, R. Enggass, The Paintings of Baciccio, Pennsylvania, 1964, p. 123, fig. 125. The verso studies are for the young woman seated in the foreground of the same picture and looking up at the Baptist.
The sheet comes from a sketchbook of red chalk studies of heads, feet and hands, mostly relating to Baciccio's later pictures. The sketchbook was broken up in 1958 and leaves are now to be found at the University of Missouri, at Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (FP 11157), and in American private collections. The drawings of this group represent, according to Robert Enggass, the final steps in the preparation of pictures. They are the only life drawings from Baciccio's later years.
The sheet comes from a sketchbook of red chalk studies of heads, feet and hands, mostly relating to Baciccio's later pictures. The sketchbook was broken up in 1958 and leaves are now to be found at the University of Missouri, at Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (FP 11157), and in American private collections. The drawings of this group represent, according to Robert Enggass, the final steps in the preparation of pictures. They are the only life drawings from Baciccio's later years.