Raffaellino Motta da Reggio, Codemondo (Reggio Emilia) 1550/1-1578 Rome, Portrait of a Young Woman. Pen and brown ink and wash, over traces of black and red chalk. Bears inscription in red chalk: Federigo Zucchari, 203 x 144 mm. (8 x 53⁄4 in.). Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd © 2017 London Art Week

Provenance: The artist Giulio Piatti (1816-1872), Villa Piatti, Florence and by descent through the Giuliana family.

Literature: Marco Simone Bolzoni, ‘The Drawings of Raffaellino Motta da Reggio', Master Drawings, vol.54, no.2, Summer 2016, p.196, cat. A58 (A signifying ‘Autograph'), fig.86.

Raffaellino Motta da Reggio, Codemondo (Reggio Emilia) 1550/1-1578 Rome, Study of a Seated Female Nude, her Hands reaching to her Foot. Pen and brown ink and wash, over traces of black and red chalk. Bears inscription in red chalk: Federigo Zucchari. Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd © 2017 London Art Week

Provenance: The artist Giulio Piatti (1816-1872), Villa Piatti, Florence and by descent through the Giuliana family.

Literature: Marco Simone Bolzoni, ‘The Drawings of Raffaellino Motta da Reggio', Master Drawings, vol.54, no.2, Summer 2016, p.196, cat. A58 (A signifying ‘Autograph'), fig.86.

Note: With the benefit of two recent studies of Raffaellino da Reggio's career as a painter and draughtsman, his place as a ‘rising star on the Roman art scene' before his premature death at the age of 28 has been made abundantly clear. Much of his fresco work has been destroyed and only the preparatory drawings remain as evidence of their virtuosity, while a number of studies exist of pastoral, mythological or allegorical subjects which were surely preparatory for domestic paintings also lost. This vivid portrait study of a woman gently smiling, is a characteristic example of a very particular group of Raffaellino's drawings, made from life and drawn with spontaneity and character. The curious manner in which the hair is depicted, in tight ringlets by the ears and with a peaked element of curls above the forehead, appears as an oft-repeated feature in Raffaellino's drawings of women, a Morellian convention highly typical of the artist. Raffaellino's drawings were clearly admired and preserved during and after his lifetime. The present work was recently discovered amongst a group of Italian 16th century drawings owned by the Florentine painter Giulio Piatti, and is a distinctive and fascinating addition to the surviving works of this intriguing artist.

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna), Recto: Study of the Head of a Bearded Man and a Second Head in Profile; verso: a fragmentary sketch of Greek style decoration. Pen and brown ink, 141 by 261mm. (5 1⁄2 x 10 1⁄4in.). Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd © 2017 London Art Week

Provenance: With E. Parsons and Sons, London, 1928 (pencil inscription on the verso); Dan Fellows Platt, Englewood, New Jersey (1873-1938) (L.2066b and L.750a); Benjamin Sonnenberg, his sale, New York, Sotheby's, 5 June 1979, lot 108, where purchased by a European private collector; by descent.

Note: Guercino may perhaps be studying the same head both from the front and in profile. There is a directness in the portrait drawing suggesting a face-to-face encounter which then becomes slighty caricatural in the profile study with its aggressively long, whiskery eyebrows. The angular, scratchy penwork and powerful expression identify the sheet as dating from the 1640's. The facial type with its serious expression, high forehead and full beard is similar to some of the Saint's heads in the altarpiece of 1645-6, the Christ and the Saints in Glory now in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse

Guercino (1591-1666), La Gloire de tous les saints. Les saints protecteurs de la ville de Modène, vers 1645. © Musée des Augustins, Toulouse. Photo Bernard Delorme

Jan Weenix (Amsterdam 1642-1719), A Squirrel Monkey. Oil on canvas, 29.9 x 25.9 cm. (111⁄2 x 101⁄4 in.). Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd © 2017 London Art Week

Note: The technical brilliance of this work shows that Weenix was a masterful maker of oil-sketches but this example seems to be an exceptional survivor of its type. No other works by Weenix of this scale and finish have yet been published although the next generation of French artists such as Alexandre-François Desportes (1661-1743) and Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) specialised in such works and the Musée du Louvre and the Musée de la Chasse have important collections dedicated to this genre. We are grateful to Dr. Anke A.van Wagenberg who will be including the present work in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Jan Weenix's paintings. The monkey as studied here can also be seen in large canvases by Weenix depicting assemblages of game, fruit and flowers, in the Wallace Collection, London and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd. Jean-Luc Baroni belongs to the third generation of a family of connoisseur art dealers. The family business first opened in Paris in 1919, and moved to Florence in 1967. In 1982, Mr. Baroni went into a 20 years long partnership with the eminent British firm Colnaghi. He has now been working from his gallery in St. James's, London for over 15 years. Mr. Baroni has long been established as a specialist in fine paintings and drawings by Old and Modern Masters. The gallery holds regular exhibitions, produces substantial catalogues that are fully researched and illustrated and participates in a number of International Art fairs such as TEFAF Maastricht, TEFAF New York, the Salon du Dessin, Paris, Frieze Masters, London, and the Florence Biennale. Alexandra Chaldecott, who worked in the Old Master Drawings Department at Sotheby's for more than a decade, contributes to the team. As part of the service offered by the gallery, Jean-Luc Baroni uses his extensive experience to advise clients on establishing, augmenting and maintaining their private collections.