One of a group of drawings by Barbault and Joseph Vien, of twenty of the participants in a'mascarade a la Turque' arranged to mark the Carnival of the French Academy in Rome in 1748.

The sitter may be either Brice Clement or Jean-Pierre Clement. It forms a valuable record of the vogue for Eastern fantasy in Europe in the mid-18th Century.

Provenance

Mme. V., Paris, sold Drouot, 1925 attributed to Vien; anon. sale, Christie's 1976; Somerville and Simpson.


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