The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Provenance
  Until 1968

  Private collector, Vienna, consigned to the Dorotheum

  1968

  (Dorotheum, Vienna, sale, March 19-22, 1968, lot 129, unsold)

  Until 1978

  Private collector, consigned to Sotheby’s

  1978

  (Sotheby’s, New York, sale, May 12, 1978, lot 270, sold to an agent, possibly on behalf of Noah and Muriel Butkin)

  Probably 1978-1980

  Noah and Muriel Butkin, Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Muriel S. Butkin

  1980-

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

  Provenance Footnotes

  1 The Dorotheum sale catalogue indicates that the painting was inscribed with a monogram that read “C.T.”; the monogram is again mentioned in the 1978 Sotheby’s auction catalogue.  However, the monogram is not visible in the reproduction of the painting in either catalogue, and no traces of it have been found on the painting’s surface to date. Yet, it was due to these references to a monogram that the painting has been attributed to Constant Troyon, a painter known mainly for his landscapes, although he did paint studies of farmhands as well.  It is possible that the supposed “monogram” was not inscribed by the artist, but rather was a collector’s mark or label on the back of the painting that has since been removed, and that the Dorotheum catalogue referred to it as a “monogram,” erroneously attributing the painting to Troyon.  Troyon did collect art himself (L.642), and so perhaps the “C.T.” does in fact refer to Troyon, but as a collector rather than an artist.  Sales of Troyon’s collection in 1872 and 1886, however, do not contain the Cleveland painting.  There are several other “C.T.” collector’s marks in Lugt, but they belong to unidentified collectors, and not knowing what the supposed monogram on this painting looked like makes it impossible to connect it to one of those in Lugt. 

  2 The May 12, 1978 Sotheby’s catalogue notes that the paintings in the sale come from the collections of various owners.  It is possible that the owner of the Cleveland painting, who is not identified in the catalogue, is the Viennese collector who in 1968 consigned it to the Dorothuem, where it failed to sale and presumably was returned to the consignor.
• Citations
  Estate of Noah L. Butkin, Bequests to Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Murel S. Butkin. Estates, Gifts, and Funds, Series 1, Box 2:14. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

  Christina Eberli, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Sept. 5, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

  Sotheby’s (New York). 19th-Century European Paintings. May 12, 1978.

  Christina Eberli, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Sept. 5, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

  Katja Fischer, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Nov. 25, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

  
  Dorotheum (Vienna). Ölgemälde, Aquarelle, Miniaturen, Zeichnungen und alte Graphik. March 19-22, 1968.

  
  Katja Fischer, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Nov. 25, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.
  
  

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  Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 652-653, Vol. II, no. 232
• Exhibition History
  Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).

  The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981).

  CMA; Brooklyn Museum; Saint Louis Art Museum; Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830-1900 (1980-82), 163, no. 135 (repr.). Text by Gabriel P. Weisberg.
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Young Man|url=false|author=|year=not dated|access-date=14 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}