Portrait of Père Grange.

Drawing, pen and brown ink, 30 x 21,4 cm, laid paper, unsigned (some brown stains, foxing).

Under wooden frame (not sudied outside frame).

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674-1755) was an Italian Rococo painter and caricaturist active in Rome. Although he made a living as a portrait painter, his pen and gouache caricatures are much freer in emotion than his state portraiture, and were much admired. They often depict named individuals or professions in satirical fashion. His drawings are now in major museum institutions. The present caricature represents Father Grange of the Augustinian Order. He was a frequent visitor at the house of Cardinal Polignac, where Ghezzi met him and drew an identical portrait on 17 November 1726.
Ref. Jacob Bean, Artists in Rome in the 18th Century: Drawings and Prints", Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (February 7 - May 7). New York, 1978.