drawing
- Museum number
- 1999,0327.1
- Description
-
Portrait of a young man, possibly Augustus Pugin at the age of fifteen; bust-length, facing three quarters left, with high collar
Graphite
- Production date
- 1790-1828
- Dimensions
-
Height: 200 millimetres
-
Width: 128 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Formerly unknown, the sitter in this fine pencil portrait was identified by Stephen Bann as Augustus Pugin, Lafitte's nephew. The identification is discussed in further detail in his article, "Pugin - The French Connection", in "Gothic Architecture Worldwide", 2016: Leuven University Press, pp. 7-31. 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. However, doubts over the identification of the sitter as Pugin have been raised by Rosemary Hill, author of the 2007 Pugin biography "God's Architect".
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.
SV
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2001 May-Sep BM, P&D, 'Paper Assets' (no cat.)
2016-17 Sept-Jan, BM, 'French Portrait Drawings' (no cat)
- 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 and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1999,0327.1