''Portrait of a Young Englishman'' (''Portrait of a Young Man with Grey Eyes'') is an oil on canvas portrait by

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

, from ''c.'' 1540-1545. It is held in the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

, in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. Its the uncertain that the portrait is really of an Englishman, he remains unidentified, but it may be in fact Henry Howard, or the Italians

Ottavio Farnese Ottavio Farnese (9 October 1524 – 18 September 1586) reigned as Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1547 until his death and Duke of Castro from 1545 to 1547 and from 1553 until his death. Biography Born in Valentano, Ottavio was the second so ...

or Ippolito Riminaldi.

Description

The young man appears delicately on the background made with intelligent brushstrokes just accentuated on the neck and cuffs of the white lace of the shirt. It is undeniably an exceptional portrait of the beginning of the artist's mature period. The sitter's transparent, shining eyes contribute to give the gaze a great psychological penetration. Titian exceptionally uses only few colours – mainly black, grey, white and pink. This makes the portrait more suggestive, and the figure stands out against the uniform grey background, casting only a delicate shadow. His face and penetrating eyes emphasize the man's spiritual state and his internal nervous tension. The painting is recorded in the collections of the Grand Dukes of

, in 1698.

Cultural references

The painting was included and described by the French historian

Paul Veyne Paul Veyne (; 13 June 1930 – 29 September 2022) was a French historian and a specialist of Ancient Rome. A student of the École Normale Supérieure and member of the École française de Rome, he was honorary professor at the Collège de Franc ...

in his work ''Mon musée imaginaire'' (2010), dedicated to Italian painting.Paul Veyne, ''Mon musée imaginaire, ou les chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture italienne'', Paris, Albin Michel, 2012, p. 330 (French)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of a Young Englishman 1545 paintings 16th-century portraits Paintings in the Galleria Palatina Portraits by Titian Portraits of men