Although the inscription describes the sitter as "A Roman legate of our Holy Father in France," there has been no satisfactory identification of this man. The drawing, an outstanding and rare survival of a fifteenth-century French work on paper, is by the painter and illuminator Jean Fouquet. Fouquet was patronized by the highest classes, as his home city of Tours was the preferred residence of the French royal court. In this sheet, the figure is placed to the left in three-quarter view, giving the legate a distance appropriate to his rank. This distance is balanced by the descriptive, sculptural treatment of the face and the psychological characterization therein. Fouquet was one of the first Northern artists to recognize and incorporate the artistic innovations of fifteenth-century Italy into the prevailing Franco-Flemish style, as manifested in the combination of monumentality and descriptive detail seen here. Fouquet's sheet is also an early survival of the portrait drawing genre, which gained great importance and popularity in France in the sixteenth century. In modern times, this drawing has always been considered a masterpiece. When it was sold at auction in 1936, it fetched the highest price paid for a drawing to that date.

Inscription: Inscribed in metalpoint, at upper right: "Ung Roumain/ legat de n [?]/ . . . St pere/ en France"; in pen and brown ink on verso, "37/ BAC no.31"; in graphite: "P.HL./ Prosper Henry Lankrinck/ Page to King Charles I./ Collector."

Marking: Collector's mark, lower right: PHL (Prosper Henry Lankrink, Lugt 2090)

Prosper Henry Lankrink (London, 1628–1692); John Postle Heseltine (British, London 1843–1929); Henry Oppenheimer (British (born America), Washington DC 1859–1932 London), his sale, London, Christie's, July 10, 13-14, 1936, no. 428, repr. as frontispiece; Vendor: Lord Duveen (1936–1949)

Bean and Turcic 1986.110

National Loan Exhibition Exh. cat. Grafton Galleries. London, cat. no. 119, p. 113.

Terisio Pignatti Il disegno: da Altamira a Picasso. Milan, 1981, p. 100, ill.

Le Dessin français du XIII au XVI siècle. Paris, 1930, fig. no. pl. 19, pp. 19, 70, ill.

Golden Gate International Exhibition, Official Catalogue of Art Exh. cat., San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor. San Francisco, 1940, cat. no. 432a, pp. 94, 103, ill.

Chefs d'oeuvre de l'art français Exh. cat., Paris, Palais National des Arts. Paris, 1937, cat. no. 437, fig. no. pl. 91, ill.

Drawings of Deceased Masters Exh. cat., London, Burlington Fine Arts Club. London, 1917, cat. no. 64, p. 22.

Max J. Friedländer "Preussiche Jahrbücher". 31, 1910, fig. no. 2, pp. 227-230, ill.

Grete Ring A Century of French Painting, 1400-1500. London, 1949, cat. no. 139, fig. no. pl. 92, p. 241, ill.

K. G. Perls Jean Fouquet . . .. Paris, 1940, fig. no. pl. 282, p. 22, ill.

Sir Trenchard Cox Jean Fouquet, Native of Tours. London, 1931, fig. no. pl. 50, pp. 55, 133, ill.

Georges Lefenestre Jean Fouquet. Paris, 1905, pp. 71, 27, ill.

Henri Bouchot L'Exposition des primitifs français, la peinture en France sous les Valois. Paris, 1904, cat. no. 44, fig. no. pl. XXXVIII, p. 20, ill.

"The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, N.S." Reports of the Departments. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Summer 1950, p. 27, ill.

The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of Drawings by Old Masters. The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of Drawings by Old Masters, part 9. 1913-14, cat. no. 25, ill.

Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900 Royal Academy of Arts, London, January - March, 1932. Royal Academy of Arts, London, Oxford and London, 1933, cat. no. 541, fig. no. pl. 149, p. 121, ill.

18, July 1936, p. 328, ill.

Charles Sterling La peinture française. Les peintres du moyen age. 1, Paris, 1941, cat. no. 6, fig. no. pl. 54, p. 18, ill.

Charles Sterling "Book review of Klaus Perl's Jean Fouquet, Paris, 1940" Art Bulletin. 38, June 1946, p. 129.

Hans Tietze European Master Drawings in the United States. J. J. Augustin, New York, 1947, cat. no. 5, pp. 10-11., ill.

One Hundred Master Drawings. edited by Agnes Mongan, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1949, pp. 12, 13, ill.

Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Drawings Exh. cat., Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia Museum of Art, November 4 - February 11. Philadelphia, 1950, cat. no. 10, ill.

Regina Shoolman, Charles E. Slatkin Six Centuries of French Master Drawings in America. Oxford University Press, New York, 1950, fig. no. pl. 2, p. 4, ill.

French Painting, 1100-1900 Exh. cat., Pittsburgh, The Carnegie Institute. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, October 18-December 2, 1951, cat. no. 130, ill.

French Drawings, Masterpieces from Five Centuries . 1952, cat. no. 3, fig. no. pl. 2, ill.

"Art Treasures of the Metropolitan" A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art Treasures of the Metropolitan, New York, 1952, cat. no. 61, fig. no. 61, pp. 68, 222, ill.

"French Drawings" Metropolitan Musem of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, , 17, no. 6, February 1959. New York, 1959, p. 164, ill.

Jacob Bean 100 European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Graphic Society, New York, 1964, cat. no. 51, ill.

William D. Wixom Treasures from Medieval France Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Cleveland, 1967, cat. no. 8, p. 308, ill.

Sir Kenneth Clark Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries Exh. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 14 November 1970 - 14 February 1971. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York, 1970, cat. no. 168, p. 189.

Robert Beverly Hale, Terence Coyle Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters. New York, 1977, pp. 208-209, ill.

Philip Conisbee "New York French Drawings" exhibition review" The Burlington Magazine. 1005, CXXVIII, December. London, 1986, p. 924.

Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turcic 15th-18th Century French Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1986, cat. no. 110, p. 107, ill.

Jean Fouquet, Peintre et enlumineur du XVe siecle. Paris, March 25 - June 22, 2003, cat. no. 13, pp. 147-48, ill.