Pier Leone Ghezzi is best known for his witty caricatures of aristocrats, clergymen and artists which he sold during his lifetime. Three albums containing such drawings passed down to his widow and were later owned by King Carlos III of Spain and the 1st Duke of Wellington, and by descent to the 7th Duke of Wellington, until they were sold in 1971. Two of the albums have now been broken up and dispersed, examples from which can be found, for example, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see J. Bean and W. Griswold, 18th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, nos. 68-71, ill.), while an album containing 64 caricatures is in the Morgan Library and Museum, New York (inv. 1978.27). It is possible that this drawing may also have been once included in those albums.

An inscription on the back of the mount (Père Duillie procureur general des carmes), not in the artist’s hands, suggests the figure may have been related to the Carmelite order. The artist would have likely executed the drawing in Rome.

Anonymous sale; Gutekunst und Klipstein, Bern, 28 May 1953, part of lot 114, where acquired by Robert Landolt; his sale, Christie’s, London, 8 December 2020, lot 93; where acquired by Warren Levin (£ 5,250); gift to The Samuel Courtauld Trust, 2025.