Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini

Paul Wallraff (1890–1981), London;

Anonymous sale, London, Bonhams Knightsbridge, 12 December 2001, lot 373;

With Simon Dickinson, London;

From whom acquired in March 2006.

Presumably intended as a bozzetto for a wall fresco, this small-scale work presents all the hallmarks of Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini’s style, characterised by lyrical, fluid brushwork and pastel tonality. Framed within fluted pilasters and a draped curtain, its design is comparable to a larger sketch depicting The arrival of Cleopatra at Tarsus, dated by George Knox to circa 1707–1708, exhibited with Hazlitt Gallery, London, in 1964.¹

Note on Provenance

This work is first recorded in the collection of German art lover Paul Wallraff. A member of a wealthy banking family in Cologne, he settled in London in 1934, assembling together with his second wife Muriel Ezra (1897–1979), née Sassoon, a fine collection of paintings, drawings, bronzes, and other works of art.

¹ Oil on canvas, 64.1 x 48.2 cm.; G. Knox, Antonio Pellegrini 1675–1741, Oxford 1995, pp. 44–45, reproduced fig. 41.