Portrait of a Gentleman

During the eighteenth century portraiture in Rome developed a distinctive, cosmopolitan style as practitioners from outside the city dominated the field: the Frenchman Pierre Subleyras, the Lucchese Pompeo Batoni, the Bohemian Anton Raphael Mengs and Austrian Anton von Maron. One reason for this diversity was Rome’s prominence as a place of artistic and educational pilgrimage for young artists and travellers from other European nations undertaking the ‘Grand Tour’.

The painting probably depicts a foreign visitor to Rome proudly holding a book, a prop suggestive of both learning and the implicit educational function of travel in the mid-eighteenth century.

The portrait is illustrative of both the distinctive Roman style and mode of ‘Grand Tour’ portraiture.