Portrait of a Young Man

?principe Massino, Rome (in 1912); Trubert, Rome (until 1914; sold to Kleinberger); [Kleinberger, New York, 1914–23; as by the Maître de Moulins; presumably sold to Friedsam]; Michael Friedsam, New York (by 1927–d. 1931)

New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Loan Exhibition of French Primitives and Objects of Art," October 17–November 12, 1927, no. 39 (as by the Master of Moulins, lent by Colonel M. Friedsam).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.

Louis Réau in Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of French Primitives. Exh. cat., New York. New York, 1927, p. 94, no. 39, ill., as by the Master of Moulins; dates it about 1490.

Louis Réau in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 203.

"Friedsam Bequest to be Exhibited Next November." Art News 30 (January 2, 1932), p. 13, prints Bryson Burroughs's survey of the Friedsam paintings; as by the Master of Moulins.

Charles Sterling. La peinture française: Les peintres du moyen age. Paris, 1942, pp. 60, 67, p. 47 (of Répertoire), no. 107, fig. 143, dates it about 1495 and suggests it is a Burgundian work; compares it to the Burgundian portrait of Jeanne de Montaigu in the Rockefeller collection, New York (colorpl. 125); finds the drawing of the hand holding a piece of paper inconsistent with the handling of the sitter's head, and calls it an awkward modern addition under which there is evidence of hands in prayer; concludes that this panel was originally the wing of a devotional diptych.

Grete Ring. A Century of French Painting 1400–1500. London, 1949, p. 240, no. 309, observes that "the picture is most probably French but neither by nor near the Moulins Master".

Maurice H. Goldblatt. "Jean Perréal: Thirty Portraits Identified—I." Connoisseur 123 (March 1949), pp. 3–8, ill. (overall and details), reads an "inscription" on the piece of paper held by the sitter [before treatment] and, "reinforcing and filling in certain letters," claims that it can be read as "Opus 7, 1488; Jehan Perréal".

Maurice H. Goldblatt. "Jean Perréal—II: Thirty-five Portraits Identified." Connoisseur 123 (June 1949), p. 95.

Grete Ring. "An Attempt to Reconstruct Perréal." Burlington Magazine 92 (September 1950), p. 258, notes that the part of the picture that bears the inscription read by Goldblatt [see Ref. 1949] is known to be a late repaint; observes that the portraits identified by Goldblatt as by Perréal "comprise a considerable variety of different artists".

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 38.

Charles Sterling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. Vol. 1, XV–XVIII Centuries. Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 16–17, ill., states that technical examination reveals that the sitter was once represented with his hands folded in prayer, and that praying hands in a damaged state still exist beneath the present surface; finds the left thumb [all that was then visible of the hands] "closer to the face in texture and color than the praying hands" and believes it "probably represents the original attitude" of the sitter; suggests the portrait was altered at an early date to make it suitable as part of a devotional diptych, in which the sitter is usually shown at prayer; finds the inscription on the paper entirely illegible.

Maurice H. Goldblatt. Deux grands maîtres français: Le Maître de Moulins identifié; Jean Perréal, 40 portraits identifiés. Paris, 1961, pp. 58, 60, ill. (overall and detail of hand) [reprinted from Ref. Goldblatt 1949].

Charles Sterling. La peinture médiévale à Paris, 1300–1500. Vol. 2, Paris, 1990, pp. 374–79, ill. (before and after treatment [in color], and detail), attributes it tentatively to the Maître de la Dame au lion et à la licorne, the French artist he identifies as active in Paris at the end of the 15th century, and responsible for the design of the Woman with the Lion and Unicorn tapestries in the Musée Cluny; discusses the conservation of this panel and revises his dating to about 1490; apparently reverts to his opinion of 1955 [see Refs.] that the original portrait was part of a devotional diptych and included praying hands; views the thumb holding a piece of paper as a later addition.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 351, ill.