Attributed to Giovanni Domenico Ferretti Florence 1692 - 1768 Place Unknown

Benno Geiger;
his sale, London, Sotheby' s, 7-10 December 1920 (as Giuseppe Nogari);
H. S. Reitlinger ( L.2274a, on the mount );
possibly his sale, London, Sothey's, 9 December 1953, lot 68 (as Nogari, An Old Man, black chalk heightened with white; and five others); to D. Ward, £20;
purchased from Alister Mathews

The attribution to Giovanni Domenico Ferretti has been suggested by Luca Baroni on stylistic grounds. This portrait was previously sold in 1920 and 1953 with an attribution to the Venetian artist Giuseppe Nogari (see Provenance). A label on the back of the frame records that  Anne Turner, 'an authority on Scarlatti', suggested that this drawing could be the work of the Venetian painter Jacopo Amigoni and the sitter could be Domenico Scarlatti.  There is one generally recognized portrait of the famous composer (who was born in Naples in 1685 and died in Madrid in 1757), the half-length portrait by Domingo Antonio de Velasco (dated circa 1740), in the Casa-Museu José Relvas, Alpiarça (see The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 22, London 2001, p. 399).  Although this identification of the sitter is possible, it cannot be substantiated as there are no images of Scarlatti later in his life. The drawing portrays a man in his seventies, and Scarlatti died when he was seventy-two.

Please note that this drawing is sold framed.