At some point in its history, this portrait of an unknown man acquired the signature and date that appear across the right background: "Goya 1780." The unflinching, not altogether flattering, approach to the sitter evokes the Spanish painter Francisco Goya (1746–1828), but this portrait’s handling is nothing like Goya's. Gaspare Traversi (ca. 1722–1770) has been proposed as its author, though this is not universally accepted.
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Title:Portrait of a Man
Artist:Italian Painter (18th century)
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:22 x 17 1/2 in. (55.9 x 44.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Accession Number:29.100.179
Inscription: Inscribed (falsely, right center): Goya / 1780
Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1912–d. 1929; purchased in Italy through A. E. Harnisch for £30,000)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 63 (as "Head of López," by Goya).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. 301.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Goya in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 12–December 31, 1995, unnumbered cat.
August L. Mayer. "Bildnisse aus dem Kreis des jungen Goya." Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft 7 (1914), pp. 385–86, pl. 82, fig. 2, attributes it to Goya; based on the signature, dates it 1775, remarking, however, that the last number is not clearly legible.
"The H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Parnassus 2 (March 1930), p. 4, calls it a portrait of the painter Vicente de López by Goya; suggests that it might be Goya's "revenge" for López's "far from flattering" painting of the artist in the Prado, Madrid.
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 48–49, ill.
Anthony M. Clark. Letter to Katharine Baetjer. February 6, 1975, ascribes this picture to Gaspare Traversi, pointing out, however, that it is "less brilliant and in far worse condition than Paul Ganz's 1770 portrait of a cleric" [now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples].
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, p. 258, calls it "style of Goya".
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 260, 285, as style of Goya, "Portrait of a Man, said to be the painter Vicente López".
Nicola Spinosa. Letter to Keith Christiansen. April 13, 1993, accepts Anthony Clark's attribution to Traversi [see Ref. Clark 1975].
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 345, no. A301, ill., as style of Goya, "Portrait of a Man, said to be the painter Vicente López".
Susan Alyson Stein inGoya in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1995, pp. 48–49, 54, 63, 68, ill., notes that its attribution was recently changed to Gaspare Traversi, "an assignment that accords not only with its style but its provenance; it was purchased in Italy in 1912".
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 141, ill.
José Manuel Arnaiz. "Nuevas andanzas de Goya: Falsos y auténticos en el Metropolitan." Galería antiquaria no. 136 (February 1996), pp. 42–43, supports the change of attribution from Goya.
Gianluca Forgione. E-mail to David Pullins. July 22, 2022, doubts an attribution to Traversi.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid)
1729
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