Standing Woman Holding a Muff, Turned Slightly to the Right (recto); Studies of Heads (verso)

Turning slightly to the right with her hands tucked deep inside a muff, a woman stands solemnly in a long cape. This drawing and another of a similar subject originally formed a single sheet and have remained together since being divided, probably in the 1800s. Pietro Longhi drew both as preliminary studies for two female figures who stand beside each other in the center of a painting.

Longhi appears to have had the final composition already in mind, since he drew this figure slightly smaller than the other, anticipating the woman's position a little farther back in the finished work. The shadows at her feet also correspond to her placement in the final painting. The letters that appear to the...