Portrait of a young gentleman, half-length

Born in Milan in 1698, Giacomo Ceruti specialized in portraiture, a genre that had become enormously popular at the turn of the century. Although Ceruti is best known for his uncompromisingly realistic portrayals of quotidian subjects in Brescia, Gandino, Venice, Padua, Piacenza and Milan, he painted portraits of remarkable intensity. This Portrait of a young gentleman is roughly contemporary with two other male portraits by Ceruti, both in private collections, which share the virtuoso handling of fabrics, a reddish ground layer and oval format (M. Gregori, Giacomo Ceruti. Il Pitocchetto, Cinisello Balsamo, 1987, pp. 185-186, nos. 55 and 56).

We are grateful to Francesco Frangi for endorsing the attribution and proposing a date of circa 1740 on the basis of images (written communication, 5 April 2024).