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Peasant Girl Catching a Flea
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian (Venetian), 1682–1754)
about 1715
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
74.6 x 96.5 cm (29 3/8 x 38 in.)
Credit Line
Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund
Accession Number46.461
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
The son of a woodcarver, Piazzetta created a strong sense of sculptural form by modelling his figures with light and shadow. Although he also painted altarpieces, the artist is best known for naturalistic images of ordinary life that are characterized by a dignified, sympathetic portrayal of his subjects, often peasants.
Provenance1929, art market, Venice; 1929, purchased in Venice by Sir Horace George Montagu Rumbold (b. 1869 - d. 1941), 9th Bart., Berlin [see note 1]; by inhertance to his son, Sir Horace Anthony Claude Rumbold (b. 1911 - d. 1983), 10th Bart., London [see note 2]; October 26, 1945, Rumbold sale, Christie's, London, lot 634 [see note 3], to David M. Koetser Gallery, London and New York; 1946, sold by Koetser to the MFA for $5700. (Accession Date: June 13, 1946)
NOTES:
[1] Rumbold was the British ambassador serving in Berlin from 1928 - 1933. [2] A letter from SIr Horace Anthony Claude Rumbold to W. G. Constable of the MFA (November 15, 1946) says that "My father bought them [MFA 46.461 and 46.462] from a dealer in Venice in, I think, the summer of 1929. They were then in our Embassy in Berlin until 1933.... After 1933 they were at the Grosvenor Current in London until the war when they were stored and eventually sold at Christie's." [3] Sold as one of a pair along with MFA no. 46.462
NOTES:
[1] Rumbold was the British ambassador serving in Berlin from 1928 - 1933. [2] A letter from SIr Horace Anthony Claude Rumbold to W. G. Constable of the MFA (November 15, 1946) says that "My father bought them [MFA 46.461 and 46.462] from a dealer in Venice in, I think, the summer of 1929. They were then in our Embassy in Berlin until 1933.... After 1933 they were at the Grosvenor Current in London until the war when they were stored and eventually sold at Christie's." [3] Sold as one of a pair along with MFA no. 46.462