A standing figure turning to the left (recto)

Details

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Mogliano 1720-1778 Rome)
A standing figure turning to the left (recto)
a design for a column capital in red and black chalk (cut, verso)
red chalk, the lower right corner made-up
3 7/8 x 1¾ in. (97 x 45 mm.)

Provenance

A.P.E. Gasc (L. 1131).
C. Gasc (L. 543), with his attribution and inscription 'Guardi (Francesco) né a Venise en 1712 mort en 1793, Elève de Canaletto. Dessin acheté de .. à Paris le 25 Janv[ier] 1860 h=0^m,101 L=0^m, 047. C. Gasc' (verso).
with Luca Baroni, Old Master Drawings, 1980, no. 22, pl. XVIII.
Burnet Pavitt, London, by whom bequeathed to the Royal College of Music.

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

Charles Gasc owned a number of small chalk figure drawings by Piranesi, all misattributed to Guardi, for example the drawings at Christie's, New York, 28 January 1999, lot 81 and 30 January 1997, lot 97. All three of these drawings were bought by Gasc on 25 January 1860, probably from his elder brother Amédée-Paul-Emile Gasc who sold his collections of pictures and drawings at auction in three sales in 1860-1. While Thibaudeau describes Charles Gasc as a socialist who took part in the events of 1848, his elder brother was a magistrate and close associate of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, eventually becoming sous-préfet of Barbezieux.

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