Niccola MONTI (Pistoia, 1780 - Cortona, 1864) - Lot 306

Niccola MONTI (Pistoia, 1780 - Cortona, 1864) God Chasing Cain circa 1820 Pen and wash in brown and sepia inks, black stone sketch on wove paper, framing fillet in pen 195 x 238 mm for the drawing 242 x 283 mm for the sheet signed below Monti Niccolo da Pistoia Late 18th-century frame in molded and gilded wood Provenance: Rome, Giovanni Piancastelli collection; Long Island, Francis Agius; France, private collection. Note: Giovanni Piancastelli was director of the Villa Borghese in Rome and had built up an important collection of drawings that was dispersed in two auctions, most of which he acquired for the Cooper Hewitt Schmitsonian museum in New York in the early 20th century. This drawing was the subject of a publication Italian Drawings 1780-1890, ed. Roberta Olson, and of exhibitions in Washington (National Gallery of Art), Minneapolis and San Francisco (Fine Arts Museum of S.F.) between March 1980 and January 1981, before returning to a French collection. The ENSBA holds another preparatory version for the altarpiece, erroneously attributed to Bégnine Gagneraux (1756-1796). Monti's painting is still in place in Pistoia Cathedral.