Profile portrait of a boy

second half of the 15th century

Object PlaceFlorence, Italy

Medium/TechniqueStone, pietra serena

Dimensions29.21 x 20 cm (11 1/2 x 7 7/8 in.)

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds from the bequest of George Robert White

Accession number53.2909

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsSculpture

Collections

Europe

ProvenanceÉmile Molinier (b. 1857 - d. 1906), Paris; June 21-28, 1906, possibly in the posthumous Molinier sale, Durand-Ruel, Paris, lot 371 [see note 1]. Dr. Albert Figdor (b. 1843 - d. 1927), Vienna; September 29-30, 1930, posthumous Figdor sale, Cassirer, Berlin, lot 124, sold for M 4,100 to Schwersenz (probably the dealer Martin Schwersenz [b. 1863 - d. 1943], Berlin). Eugene L. Garbáty (b. 1880 - d. 1966), Schloss Alt-Döbern, Niederlausitz (Germany), New York, and East Norwalk, CT [see note 2]; 1953, sold by Garbáty to the MFA for $2000. (Accession Date: December 29, 1953)

NOTES:
[1] According to the Figdor auction catalogue of 1930, this sculpture came from the Molinier collection. It might be lot 371 in the 1906 Molinier sale, described as a 14th century stone sculpture of an adolescent head with curly hair. [2] Eugene Garbáty purchased other objects at the Figdor sale, as for example MFA accession nos. 54.1114 (Cassone) and 60.178 (Folding Chair). Whether he acquired this through Schwersenz in 1930 is not known. Garbáty emigrated from Berlin to New York between 1938 and 1939, bringing much of his art collection with him.