Bartolomeo Schedoni

Art Market, Paris,
where acquired, circa 1970

This tender image, boldly and vividly executed with the point of the brush and red wash, with highlights in white, is very close to studies by Bartolomeo Schedoni of the Virgin and Child and his works depicting the Holy Family, subjects that the artist repeated frequently throughout his career.  A notable feature in Dr. O'Brien's drawing is the Christ Child playfully tugging at the Virgin's drapery, a motif found in many of Schedoni's compositions, for example the paintings of the Holy Family in the Louvre, and in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.¹ 

1. E. Negro and N. Roio, Bartolomeo Schedoni 1578-1615, Modena 2000, p. 85, cat. nos. 30.1 (Paris) and 30.2 (Bologna)