Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Portrait of a Young Man
Sir Joshua Reynolds British
Not on view
Numerous unfinished portraits by Reynolds have come down to us, and this one of an unidentified young man set against a stormy sky is among the most riveting. In some cases it remains hard to know whether the portraits were meant as preparatory studies or were left as unfinished paintings, but this canvas is usually assigned to the latter category. The sitter may be a man who worked for the artist and appeared in other paintings by him, but precise identification is difficult. The work was likely bought by Sir George Beaumont, the director of the British Institution, and would have been studied by other artists there, thus accounting for the many known copies of it.
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