Portrait of a Man

Holzer; [Piero Tozzi, New York, until 1917; sold to Kleinberger]; [Kleinberger, New York, 1917, as by Moroni; sold to Friedsam]; Michael Friedsam, New York (1917–d. 1931)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.

Bernard Berenson in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 60, calls it north Italian and dates it toward 1600; notes a similarity to the work of Sofonisba Anguissola but believes a firm attribution is unwarranted.

Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), pp. 41–42, no. 70 or 71, date it about 1600.

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 165, dates it late sixteenth century.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 52.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 226, 527, 607, as by an unknown Italian painter of the sixteenth century.

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Unpublished manuscript for catalogue of North Italian paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. n.d. [ca. 1980], date it late sixteenth century; call it probably Lombard, but note that there are similarities to Anguissola and add that it could also be the work of a northern artist imitating the Italian style.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 107, ill.

Luca Brignoli. E-mail to Keith Christiansen. April 29, 2023, proposes an attribution to Lucia Anguissola.

Cleaning in 1994 uncovered the sitter's right hand holding the lace handkerchief.