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Lot Essay
This drawing is close to the small pen and ink self-portrait in the J. Paul Getty Museum at Malibu, recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Drawings of Annibale Carracci, 2000, no. 75. The Getty drawing is datable to circa 1600.
Both drawings are inscribed in two ovals and show the same diminutive pen strokes delineating the hair and the beard. Both figures moreover show the same prominent cheekbones. Giovanni Pietro Bellori in his Lives of Annibale and Agostino Carracci described the appearance of the artist: 'Annibale's face was marked by earnest melancholy. His colouring was rather olive. He had intense eyes, a magnificent forehead, and a broad nose. His beard, which he allowed to grow naturally, tended toward blond and was not shaven but rounded off' (quoted in Washington, op. cit., under no. 75).
Nicholas Turner kindly confirmed the attribution to Annibale Carracci.
Both drawings are inscribed in two ovals and show the same diminutive pen strokes delineating the hair and the beard. Both figures moreover show the same prominent cheekbones. Giovanni Pietro Bellori in his Lives of Annibale and Agostino Carracci described the appearance of the artist: 'Annibale's face was marked by earnest melancholy. His colouring was rather olive. He had intense eyes, a magnificent forehead, and a broad nose. His beard, which he allowed to grow naturally, tended toward blond and was not shaven but rounded off' (quoted in Washington, op. cit., under no. 75).
Nicholas Turner kindly confirmed the attribution to Annibale Carracci.