Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 13 February 1981, lot 69 (as Closterman);

Thereafter acquired by the present collects or.

In 1708, the Venetian rococo painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini traveled to England at the invitation of the British ambassador to Venice, Charles Montagu, later 1st Duke of Manchester. There he enjoyed considerable success and received prestigious commissions from the Earls of Manchester and Carlisle, Sir Andrew Fontaine, and the Duke of Portland, among others. Although he specialized in large-scale decorative schemes, Pellegrini also painted portraits of his English patrons on occasion, including the Children of the 1st Duke of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle. As in the present work, the few known portraits from his English sojourn are rich with Venetian character and defined by their lyrical, fluid brushwork and pastel tonality.