Watermark: three crescents in a row, descending in size, crescent moon.
Longhi is best known for his numerous cabinet paintings of scenes of contemporary Venetian life. This drawing is so uncharacteristic of the many studies in black chalk that he executed in preparation for the diminutive figures in his paintings that, were it not for the inscription, its authorship probably would remain unrecognized. Nevertheless, the same inscription appears on a number of other sheets by the artist. It has been posited that the drawing is an early work, created not long after his sojourn in the studio of the Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665-1747). --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Inscribed at lower right, in pen and brown ink, in an eighteenth-century hand, "Petri Longhi Autographum."
Calmann, Hans M., former owner.
Adams, Frederick B., Jr. First Annual Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1950, p. 51-52.
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 154.
Stampfle, Felice, and Jacob Bean. Drawings from New York collections. III: The eighteenth century in Italy. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1971, no. 175, repr.