The work of Domenico Tiepolo, the son of Gian Battista Teipolo, the head
of the Venetian school of the XVIII century and the last of the great
Italian painters. In the period of exhaustion which followed the
Renaissance, the Venetian school alone was blessed with genius. The list
of painters is indeed impressive when compared with the nonentities of the
other Italian schools of the XVIII century. Although Domenico did not
display the same great genius as his father, at his best he approached
Giambattista so closely that his works have often been confused. Domenico
is known as an etcher as well as a painter. In his set of character heads,
called the “Raccolta di teste”, there is an etching reproducing the above
portrait.
[Portrait of James Ward. Gilbert Stuart, 1755-1828]