Short Gentleman Seen from Back
Artist
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
(Italian, 1696 - 1770)
Datemid-18th century
MediumBistre pen and wash on paper
DimensionsSheet: 6 1/4 × 4 3/4 inches (15.88 × 12.07 cm)
Framed: 13 3/4 × 12 1/8 inches (34.93 × 30.8 cm)
Framed: 13 3/4 × 12 1/8 inches (34.93 × 30.8 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Estelle S. Ellis
Object number2005.10.2
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThis drawing is executed in pen and brown ink with brown wash. It shows a man in 18th-century costume, seen from the back, leaning on a cane and wearing a long, flowing wig. The drawing is octagonal in shape with its corners cut.Exhibition HistoryCaricature, Fashion and Fantasy, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 18-December 14, 2014.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was famous for his largescale frescoes, however, he would sometimes take time out to do caricatures like these. The view from the back stimulates us to imagine how the gentlemen might look from the front! The thin, pale washes are handled with great delicacy, softening the biting impact of the caricatures.
Possibly Arthur Kay (1860-1939), Edinburgh, by 1939;
Possibly Ancient and Modern Drawings Pictures and Drawings also Original Ancient and Modern Etchings and Engravings; The Property of Arthur Kay, H.R.S.A., F.S.A., deceased, late of 11, Regent Terrace, Edinburgh sale, Christie’s, Manson, and Woods, London, April 8-9, 1943, no. 243, as A Man, standing with his back to the spectator, wearing a wig;
Bequeathed by Estelle (née Stone, 1924-2004) Ellis, Shawnee Mission, KS, to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Possibly Catalogue of
Ancient and Modern Drawings Pictures and Drawings also Original Ancient and
Modern Etchings and Engravings; The Property of Arthur Kay, H.R.S.A., F.S.A.,
deceased, late of 11, Regent Terrace, Edinburgh (London: Christie, Manson,
and Woods, April 8-9, 1943), 23, as A Man,
standing with his back to the spectator, wearing a wig.
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