Baron von Kassel (and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 5, 1962, lot 117, as Ritratto di Rinaldo Carnielo)
Charles Jerdein, London (in 1962)
H. Shickman Gallery, New York (until 1975)
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Tanenbaum, Toronto, Canada (acquired from the above in 1975)
Sale: Christie's, New York, May 6, 1998, lot 216, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the pre꧒sent owner

Ottawa, The National Gallery of Canada, The Other Nineteenth Century: Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Tanenbaum, May 26 - July 9, 1978, no. 7

Lined. Finely patterned craquelure throughout. Under UV: Lines of inpainting to address craquelure throughout background. Heavy varnish fluoresces unevenly.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present assured, dramatic portrait was long considered to be by Giovanni Boldini and painted around 1867-70.  In this period Boldini's travels to Paris and London were introducing the young Italian artist to a wide range of contemporary and old master influences and as portraiture began to assume an increasingly important place in his art. The dark background and strongly focused lighting give Portrait of a Young Man a seventeenth-century Dutch or Spanish flavor that sets the picture apart from other early portraits in Boldini's career. Together with the self-contained gaze of the sitter and the exquisitely subtle coloring of his brown jacket, black collar and Prussian blue cravat, the blending of old and new suggests the self-portrait style popular among ambitious young Parisian painters of the 1860s. Yet the signature of the work is closer to that used by Boldini in circa 1878 making the exact attribution or date of this picture a challenge. A further mystery comes with an old inscription attached to the frame which identified the painting as a portrait of the sculptor Rinaldo Carnielo.  Carnielo was a student at the Academy in Florence a few years behind Boldini but would have been too young to have posed for this portrait.  Perhaps the painting once belonged to Carnielo --- since the signature is closer to the style Boldini employed in the late 1870s, perhaps he signed and gave the picture to Carnielo in 1878 when the sculptor was almost certainly in Paris for the Exposition Universelle where he exhibited a sculpture.  An alternative theory suggests the work may be by, or depict one, of Boldini's circle of fellow artists perhaps one of the Macchiaioli.  Stylistically the work resembles the portraiture of Michele Gordigiani notable for his portraits of Robert and Elizabeth Barre𒊎tt Browning (National Portrait Gallery, Lo💮ndon).