Attributed to Annibale CARRACCI
(Bologna 1560 - Rome 1609)
A Man Seated on a Ledge, Accompanied by a Putto
Pen and brown ink, over traces of red chalk, with framing lines in brown ink.
The sheet extended at the top.
Numbered (by Crozat) 24 in brown ink at the lower right.
Inscribed ANNIBAL CARRACHE in a cartouche at the bottom of the former Mariette mount.
183 x 166 mm. (7 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.)
The sheet extended at the top.
Numbered (by Crozat) 24 in brown ink at the lower right.
Inscribed ANNIBAL CARRACHE in a cartouche at the bottom of the former Mariette mount.
183 x 166 mm. (7 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.)
The present sheet is unrelated to any known decorative scheme by Annibale Carracci, although its draughtsmanship is close to the drawings of the artist’s Roman period. Recent scholars have cast doubt on the attribution of this drawing, however, with Carel van Tuyll suggesting a designation as ‘Attributed to Annibale Carracci’, while Babette Bohn has rejected the attribution to Annibale entirely.
The present sheet has a long and illustrious provenance, which can be traced back to the 17th century. The first recorded owner of the drawing was the Roman antiquarian Francesco Angeloni (1587-1652), who acquired, from the contents of the studio of Annibale Carracci, a very large group of some six hundred drawings by the Carracci, including numerous studies for the Farnese Gallery. (In his La Historia Augusta da Giulio Cesare infino a Costantino il Magno, published in 1641, Angeloni boasted that he owned ‘seicento vari disegni di lui [Annibale Carracci] appresso di me, inventati la maggior parte per ornare, con Pittura, la celebra Galleria Farnesiana.’) After Angeloni’s death, part of his collection of Carracci drawings was purchased in Rome by the French painter Pierre Mignard (1612-1695), who brought the group to France in 1657 and assembled it into three albums containing a total of 332 sheets. It was probably at this time that the drawings were numbered in the same distinctive fashion, usually in the lower right corner of each sheet.
Two of Mignard’s albums of Carracci drawings were later acquired by the connoisseur and eminent collector Pierre Crozat (1665-1740), whose famous collection of drawings numbered 19,201 sheets. Like all of the Carracci drawings from the two Mignard albums, this drawing is next documented in the collection of the renowned Parisian connoisseur and collector Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774), who acquired a large number of important drawings from the estate sale of Crozat’s collection in 1741, which he catalogued.
Mariette’s enormous collection of over nine thousand drawings was dispersed at auction in Paris over a period of forty-two days in two and a half months, between November 1775 and January 1776. The present sheet was part of a group of twenty-three drawings by Annibale Carracci sold as one lot on the 16th of January 1776, for the sum of 168 livres and 19 sols. The contents of the lot were divided among three collectors; Jean-Antoine Julien, called Julien de Parme (1736-1799), who bought eight of the drawings for 45 livres and 19 sols, the art dealer Charles-André Mercier (1741-1786), who purchased seven drawings for 60 livres and 1 sol, and Charles-Philippe Campion, the Abbé de Tersan (1737-1819), who bought eight drawings for 62 livres and 19 sols. It is not known which of the three owned the present sheet, which eventually entered the collection of the 19th century French politician, statesman and historian Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, Baron de Barante (1782-1866), with whose descendants it remained until 2016.
The present sheet has a long and illustrious provenance, which can be traced back to the 17th century. The first recorded owner of the drawing was the Roman antiquarian Francesco Angeloni (1587-1652), who acquired, from the contents of the studio of Annibale Carracci, a very large group of some six hundred drawings by the Carracci, including numerous studies for the Farnese Gallery. (In his La Historia Augusta da Giulio Cesare infino a Costantino il Magno, published in 1641, Angeloni boasted that he owned ‘seicento vari disegni di lui [Annibale Carracci] appresso di me, inventati la maggior parte per ornare, con Pittura, la celebra Galleria Farnesiana.’) After Angeloni’s death, part of his collection of Carracci drawings was purchased in Rome by the French painter Pierre Mignard (1612-1695), who brought the group to France in 1657 and assembled it into three albums containing a total of 332 sheets. It was probably at this time that the drawings were numbered in the same distinctive fashion, usually in the lower right corner of each sheet.
Two of Mignard’s albums of Carracci drawings were later acquired by the connoisseur and eminent collector Pierre Crozat (1665-1740), whose famous collection of drawings numbered 19,201 sheets. Like all of the Carracci drawings from the two Mignard albums, this drawing is next documented in the collection of the renowned Parisian connoisseur and collector Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774), who acquired a large number of important drawings from the estate sale of Crozat’s collection in 1741, which he catalogued.
Mariette’s enormous collection of over nine thousand drawings was dispersed at auction in Paris over a period of forty-two days in two and a half months, between November 1775 and January 1776. The present sheet was part of a group of twenty-three drawings by Annibale Carracci sold as one lot on the 16th of January 1776, for the sum of 168 livres and 19 sols. The contents of the lot were divided among three collectors; Jean-Antoine Julien, called Julien de Parme (1736-1799), who bought eight of the drawings for 45 livres and 19 sols, the art dealer Charles-André Mercier (1741-1786), who purchased seven drawings for 60 livres and 1 sol, and Charles-Philippe Campion, the Abbé de Tersan (1737-1819), who bought eight drawings for 62 livres and 19 sols. It is not known which of the three owned the present sheet, which eventually entered the collection of the 19th century French politician, statesman and historian Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, Baron de Barante (1782-1866), with whose descendants it remained until 2016.
Provenance
Francesco Angeloni, Rome
Pierre Mignard, Rome and Paris
Pierre Crozat, Paris
His posthumous sale, Paris [Mariette], 10 April - 13 May 1741 [lot unidentified, bt. Mariette]
Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris (Lugt 2097)
His posthumous sale, Paris, Hôtel d’Aligre [F. Basan], 15 November 1775 - 30 January 1776, probably part of lot 300 (‘CARRACHE. (Annibal) Bolog…Vingt-trois feuilles, contenant diverses Têtes, Enfants, Plafonds & autres Etudes, à la sanguine, à la pierre noire & à la plume.’ bt. Julien de Parme, Mercier and Tersan)
Either Jean-Antoine Julien, called Julien de Parme, Charles-André Mercier, or Charles-Philippe Campion, Abbé de Tersan, Paris
Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, Baron de Barante, Château de Barante, Dorat, nr. Thiers
Thence by descent at the Château de Barante until 2016
Barante sale, Clermont-Ferrand, Hôtel des Ventes [Vassy & Jalenques], 5 November 2016, lot 9
Private collection.
Pierre Mignard, Rome and Paris
Pierre Crozat, Paris
His posthumous sale, Paris [Mariette], 10 April - 13 May 1741 [lot unidentified, bt. Mariette]
Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris (Lugt 2097)
His posthumous sale, Paris, Hôtel d’Aligre [F. Basan], 15 November 1775 - 30 January 1776, probably part of lot 300 (‘CARRACHE. (Annibal) Bolog…Vingt-trois feuilles, contenant diverses Têtes, Enfants, Plafonds & autres Etudes, à la sanguine, à la pierre noire & à la plume.’ bt. Julien de Parme, Mercier and Tersan)
Either Jean-Antoine Julien, called Julien de Parme, Charles-André Mercier, or Charles-Philippe Campion, Abbé de Tersan, Paris
Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, Baron de Barante, Château de Barante, Dorat, nr. Thiers
Thence by descent at the Château de Barante until 2016
Barante sale, Clermont-Ferrand, Hôtel des Ventes [Vassy & Jalenques], 5 November 2016, lot 9
Private collection.
Literature
Pierre Rosenberg, ‘Les Carrache e Mariette’ in Marco Riccòmini, ed., Scritti per Eugenio: 27 testi per Eugenio Riccòmini, pp.87-89, fig.12; Pierre Rosenberg, Les dessins de la collection Mariette: Écoles italienne et espagnole, Paris, 2019, Vol.I, p.253, no.I349 (as Attributed to Annibale Carracci).