Seated woman.

Drawing, pen and brown ink, grey wash, 16 x 19,5 cm, underlaid, unsigned (several creases, sm. holes, dampstain near female head).

Lazzaro Tavarone (1556-1641) was a student of the Genoese painter Luca Cambiaso, whom he accompanied to Spain in 1583 for a commission to decorate the interior paintings of the Escorial. Ten years later he returned to Genoa where he had a thriving career as a portraitist and fresco painter. This drawing with its sparing use of lines and typical eye-shapes approaches the early drawings of Taverone which still show strong influences from Camiaso. A related sheet by Cambiaso showing a similar female figure in a niche, is preserved in the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm (inv. NM 1578/1863). A drawing of an allegorical female figure attributed to Tavarone in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. 49.150.4) also shows some remarkable stylistic and technical similarities.
Ref. P. Bjurström, "Italian Drawings in the Nationalmuseum", Stockholm 1979, cat. no. 330. - J. Bean,"15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York", 1982, cat. no. 243.