Signed and dated at upper left, in pen and brown ink, "[D]om Tiepolo f. / 1791".
Variously inscribed by the artist on papers, books and folios.
Adams, Frederick B., Jr., ed. Fifteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1967 & 1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 120.
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 173.
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. 261, repr.
Watermark: crowned oval shield with three stars and letters "CSC" inside oval, fragment. See 1967.22 for same watermark.
The man and woman seated with their backs to the viewer apparently have come before the disheveled lawyer on the opposite side of the table to settle a marital dispute that may involve the foppish young man seated on the right. This is one of about twenty of the artist's scenes of contemporary life that bear the date 1791. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Beurdeley, Alfred, 1847-1919, former owner.