No watermark. Numbered at upper right in pencil: 31

Provenance: F.R. Meatyard ; J.G. Lousada, by whom given to the museum in 1928

Exhibitions: Stockholm 1962, no. 285

Amigoni was a cosmopolitan who studied under Belluci in Düsseldorf, spent the decade 1729-39 in England and again left his native town in 1747 to serve as court painter to Ferdinand VI in Madrid, where he died in 1752.

Amigoni´s decorative works in England are well known. In the case of his portraits, the chief material would seem to be a group of drawings executed in much the same manner as this and the next number.

This group comprises forty-four sheets, of which around 1925 all but ten were in the possession of F.R. Meatyard, the English art dealer. The greater part was acquired by J.G. Lousada, who distributed them as donations to the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Louvre and Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

There has been some doubt about the authenticity of these drawings. It has been suggested that they may be the work of a British imitator and some sheets have to establish the connection of this group of fourty-four drawings witg Amigoni by the fact that seven of them relate directly to known portraits of him. Moreover, it has not been possible to connect any of the others with the paintings of any other artists. [Bjurström It. Drawings no 159]