(Bergamo 1655 – 1743)
Portrait of a young man, oil on canvas, 75.5 x 57.5 cm, framed

Provenance: European private collection

We are grateful to Dott. Francesco Frangi for fully endorsing the attribution to Frà Galgario after an examination of the painting.in the original.

The present painting, which comes from a private collection, is a highly significant addition to the portraits of young men by Fra Galgario, most of which were depictions of his pupils. This is an enitrly autograph version of the painting in the Accademia Carrara, the so-called Ritratto del Cerighetto (inv. no. 671), with some deviations in the garment. The painting shows the portrait of a young man in elegant attire, a brown waist-coat, a reddish coat, and a wide-brimmed hat. The superbly nuanced colours are used to offset and enhance the brightly lit face of the sitter. The impasto application of the paint lends this portrait an almost tactile naturalness and points to the painter’s early maturity. Pictures featuring a similarly delicate colour scheme commonly date from the 1720s, such as Portrait of a Man in Dalmatian Costume in a private collection. In these works, the focus is on rendering the sitter’s emotional state, with attention directed to the large shining eyes and the firmly closed mouth. The present painting would appear to be datable to circa 1730.

Provenance: European private collection We are grateful to Dott. Francesco Frangi for fully endorsing the attribution to Frà Galgario after an examination of the painting.in the original. The present painting, which comes from a private collection, is a