Mola (Pierfrancesco, 1612-1666). The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Circle of Pierfrancesco Mola (1612-1666), The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, pen, brown ink and brown wash on laid paper, sheet size 27.6 x 19.0 mm (10.9 x 7.5 ins), inlaid to 19th century backing paper with double rule outer framing border in brown ink, bearing initials and date '1726 / c.t.' in pen and brown ink verso, with the stamps of Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford (Lugt 58), lower right corner of backing paper, and of Robert Low (Lugt 2222), at lower centre of backing paper

(Qty: 1)

Provenance: Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford (1751-1812) Lugt 58; Robert Low (1838-1909) Lugt 2222; Mark Oliver (1899-1987) of Savile Gallery, London, thence by descent.

Putatively, according to facsimile label on back board of frame:

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1727-1804); Sommasco Convent, Santa Maria della Salute, Venice; Count Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1834); Antonio Canova (1757- 1822); Francesco Posaro; Collection of Edward Cheney (1803-1884) of South Audley Street, London, and Badger Hall, Shropshire.

The facsimile handwritten note by Edward Cheney on the back of the original frame (cf, Lugt 444) reads: "This collection was collected by G.B. Tiepolo himself and given by him and his son for the Library of the Sommasco Convent (S. Maria della Salute (at Venice) in which he was professed. At the suppression of the Convents the volumes fell into the hands of Cicognara by whom they were given in an exchange to Canova from whom they passed after his death to Maestro Canova his brother, by him they were sold to Sigr. Francesco Posaro & by him to me. E.C. Venice 1842".

One of Cheney’s albums of Italian drawings, presumably purchased following the death of Robert Low in 1909, whose stamp is printed on the 19th century backing paper of the drawing, formed the basis of an exhibition of Tiepolo drawings in May 1928 at the Savile Gallery in London, run by Mark Oliver and Richard Edward Arnesby ('Ted') Wilson.