Rosalba Carriera (Venice 1675 - 1757), Portrait of a man wearing a golden-brown silk mantle over a silver waistcoat. Photo Sotheby's

Pastel; 570 by 460 mm; 23 1/4  by 18 1/2  in. Estimation: 30,000 - 40,000 USD

PROVENANCE: Sale, London, Christie's, 1 April 1987, lot 27

LITTERATURE: Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London 2006, pp. 112-113, reproduced p. 113

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: It has not been possible to identify the sitter in this handsome pastel, but the work is very typical of Rosalba's style.  The pose of the young man and the golden-brown silk mantle worn over his silvery waistcoat are very similar to her portrait of Count Nils Bielke, signed and dated: Peint à Venice par Mademoiselle Rosalba A 1729.1 It is very plausible that Rosalba kept in her studio similar silk cloths to be used by her sitters. She often portrayed them draped in an ample mantle, sometimes wearing turbans, and as suggested by Bernardina Sani: 'Rosalba sembra tener presente gli autoritratti di pittori soprattutto francesi, quali sono ben rappresentati nella collezione degli autoritratti degli Uffizi....' 2

1. B. Sani, Rosalba Carriera, Turin 2007, p. 259, no. 281, reproduced fig. 281
2. Ibid., p. 260, under no. 282

Sotheby's. Property from the Estate of Giancarlo Baroni. New York | 29 janv. 2013 www.sothebys.com