Portrait of a Man Holding a Book
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Inscription

Lower left: Ticianus

Provenance

Until 1650, possibly the Oneto family, Genoa [see note 1]; 1650, possibly brought by Don Giovan Stefano Oneto and Don Agostino Oneto from Genoa to Palermo, Sicily; by descent within the Oneto family to Don Giuseppe Oneto e Lanza (d. 1852), Duke of Sperlinga, Palermo and Naples; 1864, sold by the heirs of Oneto e Lanza to the Count of Francavilla, Palermo; by descent to his son, Luigi Maria Majorca Mortillaro, Count of Francavilla, Palermo; about 1901/1907, sold by Majorca Mortillaro to Agnew and Sons, London [see note 2]. Trotti et Companie, Paris [see note 3]. Purchased in Paris by Cottier and Company, New York [see note 4]; April 29, 1907, sold by Cottier to Frederick Bayley Pratt (b. 1865 - d. 1945), Brooklyn; April 3, 1943, sold by Pratt to Knoedler and Co., New York (stock no. A2555) and Pinakos, Inc., New York; 1943, sold by Knoedler and Pinakos to the MFA for $70,000. (Accession Date: April 8, 1943)



NOTES:

[1] The provenance given here (to 1901) is taken from Luigi Maria Majorca Mortillaro, "Ritratto di Giovan Paolo Baglione, Signore di Perugia, dipinto da Tiziano esistente in Palermo nella Galleria Francavilla" (Palermo: Alberto Reber, 1901), written when the painting was in the author's possession. [2] According to a letter from Charles R. Herschel, Knoedler, to W. G. Constable, MFA (April 13, 1943, in MFA curatorial file), "Agnew bought the picture in Palermo from the Count of Francovilla" [sic]. The painting could not have been sold earlier than 1901, when Majorca Mortillaro (as above, n. 1) published it as in the Francavilla collection, and it could not have been sold later than 1907, when it was acquired by Frederick Pratt. [3] According to Harold E. Wethey, "The Paintings of Titian," vol. 2, "The Portraits" (London: Phaidon, 1971), p. 106, cat. no. 47. [4] John C. Van Dyke confirmed in letters to James Inglis of Cottier (April 25, 1907) and Frederick Pratt (April 27, 1907) that he saw the painting in Paris with Mr. Inglis, and that his admiration for it may have influenced Mr. Inglis's buying it for Cottier and Co. Whether it was purchased at Trotti is not known.

Credit Line

Charles Potter Kling Fund

Portrait of a Man Holding a Book

Dimensions
97.8 x 77.2 cm (38 1/2 x 30 3/8 in.)
Medium or Technique
Oil on canvas
Classification
Pastels
Type
Portrait - Single - Male
Accession Number
43.83
Not on view

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