Lot of 4 figural/portrait sketches: including Tommaso Gismondi (Italian, 1906 - 2003), portrait, 1967, ink on board. Signed and dated lower left. Inscription to August L. Freundlich. Unknown (20th century), musicians, 1980s, ink on paper. Unknown (20th century), portrait, graphite on paper. Unknown (20th century), portrait of a woman writing, charcoal on paper. Biography from Medium.com: Born in Anagni on 28th August 1906 to Carlo Gismondi and Angela Ferretti, Tommaso was the eldest of five brothers (Guglielmo, Italy, Leopoldo, Leonardo). Born to a humble family: his father was a shoemaker, but political reasons, forced him eventually to set off with his family to Rome. An art enthusiast from an early age, Tommaso was just fifteen years old in the Capital, immersed in a world rich in artworks. Here he can finally cultivate his interests, accumulate practice, and refine his vocation. Among his most extraordinary works are the Vatican Library doors and the Vatican Secret Archive; the bronze altarpiece in the Cappella Europa, San Pietro in Vaticano (m 3 x 1.80); the bronze doors of the Church of Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre in Paris, performed together with his daughter Donatella. His intense participation with the Vatican, both under the papacy of Paul VI and under the influence of John Paul II, has produced some of the sculptor’s most fascinating and recognized works, giving the artist notoriety and esteem from every corner of the world. Therefore, the many works commissioned by the Church are inevitable in the collection, among which we also recognize copious Vatican coins made for Pope Paul VI. But the artist’s eclectic work was not limited to the solely masterful working of bronze and marble. His art-making, dedicated to the continuous search for elegance, beauty, and harmony, also boasts extraordinary oil paintings on the canvas where he depicted landscapes and emotions lived in the period of his life spent in Argentina with a comprehensive combination of colors. Tommaso Gismondi died in 2003 at the age of 97. 12"H x 9 1/4"W (Gismondi)