A bearded oriental facing left

Among Tiepolo’s drawings dispersed in 1885 at the sale of Edward Cheney’s collection was an album entitled Sole figure vestite (Single clothed figures) that is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and contains forty-six drawings (G. Knox, Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1960, nos. 131-176). On the spine of the album is embossed the title ‘Sole Figure Vestite T: I’ indicating that at least one other volume with drawings of the same subject existed. The second album was probably the source of this drawing and of the many other similar sheets now dispersed in public and private collections. The Sole figure vestite are depictions of men standing on their own, draped in mantles and coats, and often wearing elaborate headdresses. The series has been dated around 1754-1757 (see the exhibition Spirit and Invention. Drawings by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, New York, The Morgan Library and Museum, 2023-2024, without catalogue).