Description

Between 1797 and his death in 1804, Domenico Tiepolo created 104 inventive wash drawings for what he called Divertimenti per li ragazzi (diversions for children). This series described the life, from birth to death, of the tragicomic commedia dell’arte figure Punchinello (identified by his conical hat and beaked mask), in a loosely structured tale of an everyman.

In Punchinello Collapses on the Road, we see the protagonist, surrounded by eleven of his companions and three lamenting women, in the final days before his death. While Punchinello is indeed a kind of everyman, Tiepolo also made references throughout the series to the life of Christ. This drawing calls to mind one of Christ’s falls as he carried the cross.

Provenance

Estate of the artist; sold Hôtel des Ventes, Paris, Nov. 10–12, 1845. Sold, Sotheby’s, London, July 6–7, 1920, lot 41, to Colnaghi, London; sold to Richard Owen, Paris, to at least 1950 [Paris 1950 exh. cat.]. Léon Suzor, Paris, by 1952–at least Nov. 1971 [Paris 1952 and Paris 1971 exh. cats.]. Sold by Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London, to a private collection, 1995; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 29, 2014, lot 38, through François Borne to the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.