(1710-1747) The Sacrifice of Isaac, red chalk, with traces of white heightenings, on laid paper, 44 x 31 cm, laid down on cardboard support, browned, slightly stained, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

The attribution Anton Kern was suggested by Dr. Annalisa Scarpa on the basis of a digital photograph.

A pupil of Giovanni Battista Pittoni (Venice1687-1767) the painter Anton Kern was active in his teacher’s studio between 1725 and 1735 where he specialised in large scale chiaroscuro drawings executed in a very detailed manner after his master, the socalled "lucide carte". Pittoni painted the subject of „The Sacrifice of Isaac“ several times: Examples are kept in the Speed Art Museum in Louisville (a similar version of it in a Milan private collection), in the church San Francesco della Vigna in Venice and in the Museum in Boston today. Worth mentioning is also a painting which was commissioned by Francesco Algarotti for the Royal Gallery in Dresden of August III which was sold at an auction sale in Amsterdam in 1765. The present drawing is clearly inspired by Pittoni’s different versions of the subject, which our artist may have executed during his formation in the workshop of his master.