Lot 1170 Dα

Giovanni Battista Cipriani was born in Florence, and moved to Rome to train as an artist in 1750. There he met the English architect Sir William Chambers and his friend, the sculptor Joseph Wilton, with whom he moved to England in 1755. In his new home, Cipriani quickly made a name for himself as a decorative painter for the English aristocracy, and became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768.
Many of Cipriani's drawings are today kept in the British Museum. They are characterised by their fluid and seemingly effortless style, with an elegant use of line and subtle washes. This also applies to the present work, which could be a section or detail from one of the artist's decorative paintings in London.