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Lot Essay
One of a series of drawings on the theme of the Holy Family. The largest group of these, seventy-five, were included in an album in the Somasco convent at Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, which was in the collection of Edward Cheney in Shropshire by 1842, sold by his nephew at auction in 1885 and subsequently broken up by the dealers Parsons. Some of the Holy Family drawings from the Somasco album were sold at Christie's New York on 28 January 1999, lots 12-13; 28 January 2000, lot 38; 24 January 2001, lot 24; and 23 January 2002, lot 42; and in London on 10 July 2001, lot 75.
It has been proposed that the Orloff album, in which this and the next lot were included till 1920, was bought by Prince Alexis Orloff in a sale in 1885, when aged only 18. However George Knox has suggested that the album was acquired by Count Vladimir Orloff, President of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Science and who spent most of his life outside Russia in the last years of the 18th Century. Orloff wrote books about Italian painting and music and collected paintings.
George Knox, in his 1961 article, dated the present sheet to Tiepolo's Würzburg period, circa 1750-60.
It has been proposed that the Orloff album, in which this and the next lot were included till 1920, was bought by Prince Alexis Orloff in a sale in 1885, when aged only 18. However George Knox has suggested that the album was acquired by Count Vladimir Orloff, President of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Science and who spent most of his life outside Russia in the last years of the 18th Century. Orloff wrote books about Italian painting and music and collected paintings.
George Knox, in his 1961 article, dated the present sheet to Tiepolo's Würzburg period, circa 1750-60.