- 32
Simon Vouet
Description
- Simon Vouet
- Portrait of a young man
- oil on canvas
Provenance
By descent to Marchese Annibale Brivio Sforza;
Private collection.
Exhibited
Literature
J.-P. Cuzin, 'Jeunes gens par Simon Vouet et quelques autres. Notes sur Vouet portraitiste en Italie', in La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, XXIX, 1979, 1, pp. 16, 18, reproduced fig. 5;
E. Testori, 'Deux portraits inédits de la période romaine de Simon Vouet', in S. Loire, Rencontres de l'École du Louvre. Simon Vouet, Paris 1992, pp. 92–96, reproduced p. 95, fig. 3;
F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Seicento, Rome 2007, vol. III, reproduced p. 784, fig. 799;
A. Morandotti, 'Vouet à Milan et l'École Lombarde', in Simon Vouet en Italie, Rennes 2011, pp. 120–22, reproduced p. 120, fig. 1 (reproduction inverted).
Condition
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
Catalogue Note
It was Dominique Cordellier who recognised the portrait as the work of the young Vouet, chancing upon it in a book on Italian costume published in 1966.1 Having been subsequently published by Jean-Pierre Cuzin in the Revue du Louvre, Edoardo Testori discovered that it and another portrait by Vouet (depicting Henri Traivoel) of precisely the same size had come from the ancient Trivulzio collection. Cardinal Giangiacomo Trivulzio was a great connoisseur collector from Milan and a close friend of Pope Urban VIII. Though Vouet passed through Milan in November 1621, and stayed for a few weeks or so, it is not certain that he executed either portrait there at the command of Trivulzio, although it is interesting to note that another portrait by Vouet of similar style and date also enjoys early Milanese provenance.2
Vouet’s early Roman portraits, like the present example, are animated and moody, governed by an effective use of chiaroscuro, the dark areas often nearly black, the highlights rich in white, creamy paint. They have a spontaneity about them which here manifests itself almost as if the portrait was painted dal vivo. A powerful source of light illuminates one side of the young man’s face and strikes the folds and frills of his rapidly executed ruff; this is a ruff alla lattuga that was particularly popular in Rome between 1620–24.3 The exaggerated light and dark lends a somewhat sinister air to the portrait, but imbues the sitter with the tenacity and vigour of a cavelier; he is, as Cuzin wrote of him, ‘un bel Athos amer et soupçonneux’.4
The painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Simon Vouet currently being prepared by Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée.
1. See Levi Pisetzky 1966.
2. In the collection of Gerolamo Etro, Milan. See Morandotti 2011, p. 121, reproduced fig. 4.
3. Testori 1992, p. 94.
4. Cuzin 1979.