(Naples 1615–1673 Rome)
Study of a sleeping man in a coat and a hat, seen from behind, red chalk, on laid paper, 5,5 x 11,7 cm, fixed to old support, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection John Spencer (1708–1746), Althorp, Lugt 1530; Collection John Clermont Witt (born in 1907), London, Lugt 2228b; sale Sotheby’s London, 19th February 1987, “Drawings and Watercolors from the Collection of the Late Sir John and Lady Witt”, lot 284; Collection Giancarlo Sestieri, Rome.

Exhibited:
Lumezzane Pieve, Torre Avogadro, Disegni italiani dal XV al XX secolo. Mostra antologica da collezioni private, 31st March - 22nd April 2001.

Literature:
G. Sestieri (Ed.), Disegni italiani dal XV al XX secolo. Mostra antologica da collezioni private, Exh.cat. Lumezzane Pieve, 2001, Cat. 17, Pl. 8.

The present study is comparable with a group of figure studies in red chalk by Salvator Rosa which Michael Mahoney dated to the 1640s. (M. Mahoney, The drawings of Salvator Rosa, New York/London 1977, I, Cat. 20.4, 20.9, 20.10, II pp. 254–256) Within this group one drawing with a sleeping man in a hat and a coat (Mahoney 1977, Kat. 20.9, red chalk, 8,7 x 10,8 cm) is particularly close to the present sheet because it shares the same model. Rosa drew rarely in red chalk. He used it only in his early drawings whose attribution to Rosa is secured through their provenance in the collection of Livio Odescalchi (1652–1713) and because his early sheets were close with the drawing technique of Aniello Falcone in Naples. (Mahoney 1977, Cat. 2.1–2.6, pp. 140–143) A majority of this early drawings with nude studies and genre figures came to the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (comp. Inv. Nr. C 9–12, Inv. Nr. I 16, I 17) through the heirs of Prince Odescalchi. Stylistically there is only little difference between the early sheets and the later chalk drawings from the 1640s. Moreover, they can neither be connected with drafts for paintings nor with etchings by the artist. Presumably the present sheet was a study for a genre figure in one of Rosa’s landscape paintings.