Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804), Study for a ceiling: Venus and Love surrounded by putti , black stone, pen and brown ink, brown wash on paper, watermark crowned coat of arms with hunting horn, signed Dom. Tiepolo and numbered on verso in red chalk 26 , 43.5x24 cm Provenance: Pierre Defer (1798-1870), then by descent, his son-in-law, Henri Dumesnil (1823-1898), his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 10-12 May 1900, lot 249 ( Projet de plafond. Venus and Love, accompanied by cherubs, rise above the sea. Pen and bistre wash. Height 440 mill. width 245 mill. ) Exhibition: Drawings by Old Masters, 1879, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, no. 224 ( Tiepolo (D.). Venus and Love, accompanied by cherubs rising above the sea, in the clouds. H.0,440, L.0,247. Project for a ceiling. Belongs to M. Dumesnil. ) A Swiss Private Collection Lots 26 to 30, 2697 to 2701, 2703 and 2705 to 2707 marked in green in the printed catalogue come from a private Swiss collection. The collection is made up of high quality old paintings and drawings painstakingly assembled over almost 40 years (see page 33 of the printed catalogue). We would like to thank Benjamin Peronnet for writing the notes on the drawings in this collection.