Description:

collector’s marks lower left, lower right (verso): L. 1422; L. 271
red chalk
200 x 152 mm

Provenance:

Joseph Daniel Böhm (1794-1865), Vienna [L.1422; L.271]
his sale, A. Posonyi, Vienna: 4 December 1865 and following days, Lot 1441 (as school of Raphael, possibly Vorsterman)
Alexander Emil Posonyi (1838-1899), Vienna
Jacques Petit-Hory (1929-1992), Paris, 1981
with Baskett & Day Ltd, London
where acquired by the present owner in January 1982

Note:

This enigmatic red chalk drawing is one of the earliest surviving records of what is widely considered to be the most important work of art still missing since World War II. Confiscated by German troops from the Czartoryski family residence, Sieniawa Palace, following the annexation of Poland in 1939, Raphael’s Portrait of a young man was last seen on display in 1945 at Kraków's Wawel Castle, then residence of the chief Nazi administrator in Poland, Hans Frank. On the wall of the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, the painting’s home between 1876 and 1939, the original frame remains empty, in anticipation of the portrait’s return.

The painting is dated by scholars to the 1510s, however its early history remains a topic of much debate. Some believe it remained in Raphael’s studio at the time of his death. If that is the case, then the painting was inherited by Raphael’s principal assistants, Giulio Romano (c. 1499-1546) and Perino del Vaga (1501-1547), making both artists plausible candidates for the authorship of the present drawing. Nicholas Turner accordingly dated the drawing to around 1520, although he suggested that the artist may be Florentine, noting the ‘Sartesque’ handling of the chalk.

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