Object of the Month: Francesco Zuccarelli RA (1702-1788), Self-portrait
Francesco Zuccarelli RA, Self-portrait, 1736 or 1738. Chalks on laid paper
When he drew this self-portrait, Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788) was already an established artist, known for his paintings of pastoral landscapes. Born in Pitigliano, Tuscany, he studied in Rome before settling in Venice in the early 1730s. One of his patrons in the city was the British Consul, Joseph Smith, and it was possibly through his influence that Zuccarelli decided to move to London in 1752. There, he enjoyed considerable success and became a founder member of the Royal Academy before returning to Italy in the 1770s.
Here, Zuccarelli chose to portray himself in a traditional half-length format, looking towards the viewer and holding a sheet of paper bearing his signature and an inscription. Skilfully executed in black chalk, the drawing has subtle white highlights and touches of red to suggest flesh tones on the face. Both the artist’s clothing and the background are plain and understated but the shading on the jacket is blended with the stump to produce an effect similar to wash, giving the impression of a soft fabric, possibly velvet.
Zuccarelli is thought to have been commissioned to draw this portrait by the Florentine nobleman, painter and collector, Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri (1676-1742) who assembled over two hundred artists' self-portrait drawings in his family’s palazzo. The impetus for this was probably to have the portraits engraved as illustrations to a book he was writing on the ‘Lives of the Painters’. However, this project never came to fruition and when Gabburri died much of his collection was acquired by the English collector Charles Rogers. The mark which Rogers added to his drawings for identification can be seen on the bottom left corner of the sheet while the initials on the bottom right, WE, stand for William Esdaile who later acquired some of the drawings from Rogers’ collection.
