ALESSANDRO MAGNASCO (Genoa, 1667 - 1749) The Visitation Black pencil, brush, brown watercolour and white lead on brown paper, 32.5X20 cm Provenance: Genoa, Ildebrando Bossi collection Genoa, private collection Bibliography: B. Geiger, Magnasco. I disegni, Padova 1945, p. LVII, fig. on p. LV (as Alessandro Magnasco) F. Franchini Guelfi, Alessandro Magnasco. I disegni, Genoa 1999, p. 140, n. 34 (cited) The drawing is an important addition to the artist's catalogue and finds undoubted similarities in style with the sheets in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Atkins Museum of Fine Art. These works share the same measurements, the same provenance from the Genoese collection of Ildebrando Bossi, the same execution technique and the centred form (cf. Franchini Guelfi 1999, pp. 140-145, nos. 34-36). The above-mentioned sheets depict the Nativity, the Flight from Egypt and the Marriage of St. Catherine, to which is added the Visitation presented here (Geiger, 1945, p. LVII, fig. on p. LV). Given their characteristics, it is all the more clear that these creations certainly reflect 'ideas' intended for large-format works, but even more so they were produced for a cultured collector, supplied by the artist to friends and refined patrons who appreciated the author's extraordinary pictorial and drawing freedom. Datable to 1735, thus to his full maturity, all the sketches are characterised by the use of white lead in loose brushstrokes and the movement of the figures is suggested by fast, luminous filaments that stand out against the brownish paper. We thank Fausta Franchini Guelfi for confirming the attribution. Reference bibliography B. Geiger, Magnasco, Bergamo 1949, p. 126, table 80 F. Franchini Guelfi, Alessandro Magnasco, Genoa 1977, ad vocem