Head of an elderly woman, bust-length

Painted in oil on a sheet of repurposed account-book paper, with the original pen inscriptions partially visible beneath the paint, this study of an elderly woman belongs to a small but coherent group of head studies executed by Annibale Carracci circa 1589-90, shortly after the artist's formative sojourn in Venice. Erich Schleier, who first attributed this sketch to Annibale in an unpublished study (27 November 2022), noted several idiosyncratic features: the rapid, free brushwork; the brown preparation of the paper partially overlaid at the left with a greenish-grey ground; the characteristic rendering of the forehead's wrinkles; and, above all, the swift pictorial handling of the left ear. The closed mouth, lean lips and unsparing observation of the lined face find parallels in two further studies of elderly women by Annibale in Bolognese private collections: a frontal head (see F. Arcangeli, 'Sugli inizi dei Carracci', Paragone, VII, 1956, 79, pp. 17-48); and the Head of a blind woman, also painted in oil on paper (see A. Brogi, in Annibale Carracci, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, 2006, IV, pp. 19-20).

The present sketch is most closely tied, however, to a group of four further studies painted on sheets from the same account book, of comparable scale: a Head of a bearded old man (Dorotheum, Vienna, 13 April 2011); a Head of an old woman in profile (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, inv. PD.17-1992) and its pendant (Sotheby's, New York, 31 January 2013, lot 51); and a frontal Head of a Woman (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, inv. 2019.4).

Please note that Erich Schleier’s unpublished study, on which this catalogue entry is based, is available upon request.