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This vertical portrait shows the head, shoulders, and chest of a young man with smooth, pale skin and shoulder-length, dark blond hair positioned behind a narrow gray, stone ledge. Shown against a black background, the man tilts his head to our left and his eyes cut to our right. His left eyebrow, on our right, is slightly arched over brown eyes. He has a long, straight nose, pale pink lips, and his hair falls down the sides of his face from beneath a crimson-red, flat-topped cap. He wears a brown garment with white linen peeking through at the shoulder seams. The neck and seam down the front are lined with white, perhaps fur. He holds his right hand to his chest with his middle finger overlapping his ring finger.

Sandro Botticelli

Portrait of a Youth, c. 1482/1485

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 39

Medium

tempera on poplar panel

Dimensions

overall: 43.5 x 46.2 cm (17 1/8 x 18 3/16 in.)

framed: 60.3 x 50.5 x 4.4 cm (23 3/4 x 19 7/8 x 1 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.19

Artists / Makers

Sandro Botticelli (painter) Florentine, 1446 - 1510

Image Use

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Provenance

James-Alexandre, comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier [1776-1855], Paris, by 1841;[1] (Pourtalès-Gorgier sale, Paris, 27 March-4 April 1865, 1st day, no. 87, as by Masaccio [sale began February 6; sale of paintings began March 27]); Henri-Joseph-François, baron de Triqueti [1804-1874], Paris;[2] by inheritance to his daughter, Mme Lee-Childe, baronne de Triqueti, Paris; (Triqueti sale, Paris, 4 May 1886, no. 4). ("a Paris expert's junk shop").[3] Baron Arthur de Schickler [1828-1919], Paris, and Martinvast, Normandy (near Cherbourg); by inheritance to his daughter, Marguerite, Comtesse Hubert de Pourtalès [1870-1956], Paris, and Martinvast, Normandy; sold June 1920 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, and New York) in part-share agreement with (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York) and (Arnold Seligmann & Co., Paris);[4] on approval to Carl W. Hamilton [1886-1967], New York, by 1920, and returned 1921;[5] Clarence H. Mackay [1874-1938], Roslyn, New York, by 1924 until at least the mid-1930s;[6] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[7] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] See Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois, Descriptions des tableaux faisant partie des collections de M. le Comte de Pourtalés-Gorgier, Paris, 1841: 4, no. 4.

[2] The painting was described as being in the Triqueti collection by Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, from the II to the XVI Century, German ed. trans. Max Jordan, 6 vols. in 8 parts, Leipzig, 1870: 3:178. An annotated copy of the 1865 Pourtalès-Gorgier sale catalogue in the NGA Library indicates the buyer was Triqueti.

[3] According to Bernard Berenson, "A Botticelli Portrait in the Collection of Mr. Carl W. Hamilton," Art in America 10, no. 1 (December 1921): 29, who stated that he had seen the painting there "twelve or more years" earlier.

[4] The Baron's daughter, who married Comte Hubert de Pourtalès in 1890, was her father's sole heir. Edward Fowles (Memories of Duveen Brothers, London, 1976: 102-103, 134) discusses the original purchase agreement with Wildenstein and Seligmann for some of the works in the Schickler collection, and the subsequent agreement in 1922 that divided the works among the three dealers. Although Fowles indicates the sale took place in April 1919, the list of expenses for the painting in the Duveen Brothers Records show the purchase was made the next year (copy in NGA curatorial files; X Book, Reel 422 [see also Reel 45, Box 133, folder 1], Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles).

[5] According to Fowles 1976: 127-129, a large collection of Italian paintings was offered on approval to Hamilton by 1920, but he did not purchase them and returned them to Duveen the following year.

[6] In the 1924 New York exhibition the painting was already exhibited as part of the Mackay collection. In 1930, as a consequence of the Depression, Mackay closed his mansion at Roslyn and began to sell his works of art with the assistance of Duveen Brothers (see Fowles 1976: 157). As Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Italian ed., trans. Emilio Cecchi, Milan, 1936: 90, still lists the picture as being in Roslyn, Duveen Brothers must not have acquired it by that year.

[7] The original Duveen Brothers in invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Drouot, Hôtel
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Hamilton, Carl W.
Lee-Childe, Baronne de Triqueti, Mme
Mackay, Clarence H.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Pourtalès, Hubert de, Comtesse
Pourtalès-Gorgier, James-Alexandre, comte de
Schickler, Arthur de, Baron
Seligmann & Cie., Arnold
Triqueti, Henri-Joseph-François, baron de
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1924: Loan Exhibition of Important Early Italian Paintings in the Possession of Notable American Collectors, Duveen Brothers, New York, 1924, no. 19 (no. 13 in illustrated 1926 version of catalogue).

1929: Loan Exhibition of Primitives, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1929, no. 5.

1930: Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 133a in 4th ed. of catalogue (no. 231 in commemorative catalogue published 1931; not in 1st ed. of catalogue or souvenir catalogue).

1935: Fifteenth Century Portraits, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1935, no. 11, repro.

2015: The Botticelli Renaissance (Berlin title) / Botticelli Re-Imagined (London title), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2015-2016, no. 163, repro. (painting lent to exhibition in Tokyo between Berlin and London venues).

2016: Botticelli and His Time, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 2016 (painting withdrawn a month early for loan to exhibition in London).

Bibliography

1926: Valentiner, W.R. The Clarence H. Mackay Collection. New York, 1926: 1, 3-4, no. 4, repro.

1937: Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 79, repro.

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 101, repro.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 28, no. 19.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 76.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 20, repro.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 22, color repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 300, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 17.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:50, color repro.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 28-29, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 10, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 36, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:79-80; 2:pl. 52.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 97, no. 61, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 55, repro.

1996: Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. 10th ed. Fort Worth, 1996: 719-720, color fig. 21.56.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 176-180, color repro.