Portrait head study of Don Quixote

John Vanderbank's 68 illustrations for Lord Carteret's edition of Cervantes Don Quixote, first published in 1605 and quickly translated into English and French, represent his main occupation during the last decade of his life. Commissioned in 1723, Vanderbank completed his designs, a finished set of which is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, by December 1729 and they were engraved by Gerard Van der Gucht (1696-1776) for publication in 1738. This drawing, made in the last year of his life, appears to follow that group. Its bold, swirling penwork and elaborately scrawled signature and date are highly comparable to a self-portrait of 1738 in the National Portrait Gallery, London.