A young boy climbing a tree

Details

Leandro dal Ponte, called il Bassano (Bassano del Grappa 1557-1622 Venice)
A young boy climbing a tree
with inscription 'Bassan'
black chalk, heightened with white, on grey-blue paper, watermark crown (?)
11 ¼ x 7 ½ in. (286 x 192 mm.)

Provenance

Zaccaria Sagredo (cf. L. 2103a), with inscription 'B.B. n:o 9' (verso).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, Monaco, 2 July 1993, lot 16.
with Flavia Ormond, London, 1994, no. 2.
Professor Maurice Cope, Delaware.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

This drawing was almost certainly executed early in Leandro's career when he was still working closely with his father, Jacopo Bassano, whose picture of circa 1578-79 The Flood includes the figure of a young boy climbing a tree in the upper right quadrant (B.L. Brown and P. Marini, Jacopo Bassano c. 1510-1592, exhib. cat., Bassano del Grappa, Museo Civico and elsewhere, 1992, no. 65). W.R. Rearick in the 1992 exhibition catalogue suggests that Leandro worked considerably on the picture (op. cit., p. 172). This would account for the changes between the drawing and the painting, as Leandro worked out the changes in the boy's pose directly on the canvas.

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