Francesco Albani
Self Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Oil on copper. 10 x 7.4 cm (oval).
In his report, Eudore Soulié records that on 9th September 1870 curator of the Louvre M. Ravaisson transferred 55 historic portraits from Versailles to Paris to protect them from Prussian forces. Soulié's report also describes which works were taken by the occupying troops. However, this portrait by Albani is not mentioned in either of these accounts. The painting is illustrated in the same direction by Charles Gavard in his „Galeries historiques de Versailles“.
Provenance
Auctioned by Bataillard, Paris 30.4.1840, no. 1. - Musée Chateau de Versailles until 1870.
Literature
Eudore Soulié: Notice du Musée Imperial de Versailles, 2. partie - Peintures et sculptures, Versailles 1855, p. 613, no. 4119. - Eudore Soulié: Le Musée de Versailles pendant l´occupation allemande (Rapport à Frédéric Villot, secrétaire général des musées nationaux, 1871): In: Revue de l´histoire de Versailles et de Seine-et-Oise, vol. I, 1899, p. 150-160. - Stéphane Loire: Musée du Louvre, École italienne, XVIIe siècle, 1. Bologne, Paris 1996, p. 378 („tableau disparu depuis 1870“). - Claire Constans: Musée National du Château de Versailles et des Trianons, Les Peintures, 2 vol., Versailles 1995, vol. 1, p. 34, no. 157 (inv-no. MV 4213). - Catherine R. Puglisi: Francesco Albani, New Haven 1999, no. 82.LV.c (catalogue raisonné, „lost versions“). - Charles Gavard: Galeries historiques de Versailles, 1838-1845, Supplément III, plate 89.