Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO (Venice 1696 - Venice 1770) Venetian figure in full length looking to the left Pen and brown ink, brown wash. (Stains on the four corners). 22 x 13 cm This elegant Venetian figure would have been part of one of three albums of figures from the Edward Cheney (1803-1884) collection, dispersed in London at Sotheby's on 29 April 1885. Two of these albums, containing eighty drawings, were subsequently purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, one of which is titled "Sole figure vestite". Apart from twenty other drawings preserved in the Museo Civico in Trieste, Professor Knox had counted about a hundred sheets from this series, scattered around the world. Unlike the caricatures, which were inspired by people they met at random, the "Sole figure vestite" seem to be pure inventions, drawn independently of the paintings and frescoes. They are exercises designed to stimulate the imagination, with the aim of creative perfection. The artist's style is immediately recognizable, but each figure drawn is distinguished from the others by a costume or a singular attitude, with that inimitable light of an ethereal Venice, eternal in our hearts.