Young Lady in a Tricorn Hat
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo·c. 1755/1760
Historical Context
Young Lady in a Tricorn Hat, painted around 1755-1760 and now in the National Gallery of Art, is one of Tiepolo's most charming genre-influenced paintings — a portrait-like study of a young woman in contemporary Venetian fashion. The tricorn hat, ubiquitous in eighteenth-century European dress, gives the figure a jaunty elegance. The painting demonstrates that Tiepolo's gifts extended beyond grand historical and religious compositions to intimate character studies rendered with the same luminous palette and confident brushwork. These smaller, more personal works reveal the observational foundation underlying his monumental decorative projects.
Technical Analysis
The portrait is painted with Tiepolo's characteristic luminous palette, with warm flesh tones and a cool-toned hat creating pleasing contrast. The fluid brushwork captures the young woman's lively expression with spontaneous charm.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the charming tricorn hat giving the young woman a fashionable, slightly rakish air — one of Tiepolo's most delightful genre-influenced paintings.
- ◆Look at the fluid brushwork capturing the lively expression with spontaneous charm, the warm flesh tones contrasting with the cool-toned hat.
- ◆Observe this portrait-like study of contemporary Venetian fashion from around 1755-1760, far from Tiepolo's grand mythological subjects.
Provenance
Luigi Pisa, Florence, by 1937;[1] (his sale, Circolo Artistico, Palazzetto del Da Ponte, Venice, 5-9 September 1938, no. 318, repro. as by Alessandro Longhi). Italico Brass, Venice.[2] (Schaeffer Galleries, New York), probably from 1947; sold 21 May 1948 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1952 to NGA. [1] _Catalogue de la Collection Pisa_, preface by Ugo Ojetti, 2 vols., Milan, 1937: 1:114, no. 749, 2:124. A handwritten notation on the back of an old photograph (photographic archives, NGA), reads "Pisani Collection 1932." This information has not been independently corroborated. [2] According to Alessandro Morandotti, _Mostra di pittura veneziana del settecento_, Exh. cat. Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, Venice, 1941: 43 (listed as Alessandro Brass); Max Goering, "Tiepolo" in Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, _Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart_, Leipzig, 1907-1950: 33:154; and Antonio Morassi, _Tiepolo_, Bergamo, 1943: 28. [3] Inventory card no. 1220 from the Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., confirms the sale of the picture in May of 1948; the ealiest date on the card is 11/28/1947. (Getty Research Institute, copy NGA curatorial files). The purchase from Schaeffer Galleries is also recorded in a typewritten notation, Kress records, NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2492.
