Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap, also known as Man with a Red Cap and Portrait of a Young Man, is an early-sixteenth-century portrait by the Venetian painter Titian, generally dated to about 1516.
The unidentified sitter is depicted wearing a vivid red cap, the feature from which the painting takes its customary title. The work belongs to the group of portraits produced shortly after his period in Padua, and is now held by the Frick Collection in New York City.
Date Two portraits of young men have been ascribed to the years immediately following Titian's stay at Padua (): the Man with a Red Cap and the Man with a Glove. The Frick Collection dates the former painting slightly later, to about 1516.
Provenance
Although the sitter has not been identified, the portrait was apparently well known by the seventeenth century. Carlo Dolci incorporated a copy of the figure into the background of his Martyrdom of Saint Andrew in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence. The inclusion of the figure indicates the portrait's continued recognition during Dolci's lifetime.
The art critic Charles Ricketts, writing in 1910, recalled the painting's rediscovery:
The painting passed through several private collections before being auctioned by Christie's in 1906 and purchased by Sir Hugh Lane. Henry Clay Frick acquired it in 1915.
See also List of works by Titian
References