A bearded man, bust-length, in a brown cape

This characterful head study dates to the 1770s when Ubaldo Gandolf, by then a flourishing independent artist, is known to have produced a group of such studies, all executed with great spontaneity and a high level of realism. A significant number are known to have been bought by the Marchese Gregorio Casali (1721–1802), Ubaldo’s main patron, subsequently passing to the Isolani Lupari family in Bologna. Whilst it is not possible to link this picture definitively to the Casali collection, it does share the characteristic of being signed or inscribed on the reverse, in the same manner as many of the Casali works. A number are also dated 1777, which Prisco Bagni (op. cit., p. 506) suggests may have been the year when they entered the collection, as opposed to the year they were made. The same model used here also features in a number of other studies on this scale.