Collection online

drawing

• Object type

  • drawing

• Museum number

  1999,0327.1

• Description

  Portrait of a young man, probably Augustus Pugin at the age of fifteen; bust-length, facing three quarters left, with high collar Graphite

• Producer name

  • Drawn by: Louis Lafitte

• School/style

  • French

• Date

  • 1790-1828

• Materials

  • paper

• Technique

  • drawn

• Dimensions

  • Height: 200 millimetres
  • Width: 128 millimetres

• Curator's comments

  Formerly unknown, the sitter in this fine pencil portrait has been identified by Stephen Bann as Augustus Pugin, Lafitte's nephew. The identification is discussed in further detail in his forthcoming article, "Pugin - The French Connection", in the 'Proceedings of the Pugin Bicentenary Conference of 2012', due to be published in late 2016. Lafitte's wife was the sister of Pugin's father and Bann suggests that the drawing dates from a family holiday the Pugins took to France in 1827. Pugin would thus be shown at the age of 15.

  Lafitte had already made similarly precise pencil drawings of the Pugin family, including a portrait of the two-year-old Pugin (1814) and a portrait of his mother Catherine (1815), both of which are now in the V&A.

  Further information will be added after the publication of Stephen Bann's article.

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• Location

  Not on display (French Roy XIXc)

• Exhibition history

  2001 May-Sep BM, P&D, 'Paper Assets' (no cat.)
  2016-17 Sept-Jan, BM, 'French Portrait Drawings' (no cat)

• Associated names

  • Portrait of: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin

• Acquisition name

  • Funded by: David Leventhal
  • Purchased from: Thomas Williams

• Acquisition date

  1999

• Acquisition notes

  This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

• Department

  Prints & Drawings

• Registration number

  1999,0327.1