Italian: Artist Unknown

Young Italian Gentleman

Italian
circa 1815-1820
Artist Unknown*

2 1/2 inches diameter (sight)

watercolor on ivory; housed under glass in a gilt metal surround that
was likely originally set within an ebonized wood frame or the cover of a decorative box

formerly a holding of the Frederick Cochran Collection
(Boston securities broker Frederick Boardman Cochran -- 1860-1916)

*When this miniature portrait was acquired, it was paired with a miniature of a young Italian lady that was clearly signed by Italian painter Angelo Vacca, leading one to wonder if this portrait too, although unsigned, might also have been painted by Vacca. There are enough stylistic differences between the two portraits, however, that it is difficult to make a firm attribution of the young gentleman's portrait to Vacca.