ATTRIBUTED TO GIUSEPPE CADES (ROME 1750 - 1799)
The Farewell
pastel on paper, joined upper section
470 x 350 mm (18 2/4 x 13 3/4 in)

The subject and style of the present work relate to the frescoes executed by Cades in the late 1780s in the Ariosto Room of the Chigi Palace, Ariccia. Cades uses flamboyant colours to depict the costume of his characters. He had visited Bologna and Venice around the time of the Ariccia decorations where he admired the works by Paolo Veronese and Luca Giordano. Anthony M Clark describes Cades as a notable exponent of the fashion in the 1880s and '90s for costume pieces, which is a notable feature of the present pastel, not dissimilar to the style of Fragonard. He admired Rubens, and the use of sumptuous costumes to enrich and give vigour to a careful and dramatic composition. The beauty of tone and the wealth of texture are to Cades' purpose. (see A. M. Clark, 'An Introduction to the Drawings of Giuseppe Cades', Master Drawings, vol. 2, no. 1, spring 1964, pp.18-26 & 68-75). Giuseppe Cades benefited from the British patronage early in his career and by the later 1770's his studio was a must for visiting 'grandees' and shared the patrons of such artists as Gavin Hamilton and Canova.