#uncertain attribution

In 2023, canadian auction house Waddington's sold a portrait apparently by François-Hubert Drouais and I say apparently, not because the auction house gave any sign of the attribution being doubtful but because the portrait did not look not just like any François-Hubert Drouais, but also not like any 18th century French portrait I've ever seen.

Waddington's portrait.

Closest François-Hubert Drouais I could find.

Back in early 2024, when I first found the Waddington's portrait, I thought it reminded me of something, and since it looked somewhat italian, I decided I was probably being reminded of Giuseppe Bonito.

A portrait by Giuseppe Bonito.

A while ago I had downloaded a PDF regarding a series of portraits of the Serra family by Carlo Amalfi, the PDF had been completely forgotten by the time I found the Waddington's portrait, but about half a year ago I started going through my PDFs and once I had extracted the pictures of the Amalfi portraits I thought they looked somewhat familiar, going through my saved pictures the Waddington's portrait just jumped at me and I decided right then it had to be an Amalfi.

Now I won't pretend to be an expert in 18th century portraiture, but I do have eyes and possibly you do too. I leave you with this side by side, and maybe you'll reach the same conclusion I did.

Side by side comparison of an Amalfi and our Waddington's.

Drouais, Waddington's, Bonito.

Three faces by Amalfi, the Waddington's, two by Drouais.

Three hands by Amalfi, the two of our Waddington's (the fourth holding a pink drapery, the fifth resting on a surface), four by Drouais. With the third (by Amalfi) and fourth looking almost identical.

Neck and chest details including lace, by Amalfi (initial three), the Waddington's, and by Drouais (last two).

To me the prominent chiaroscuro found in both Amalfi and the Waddington's, the smooth finnish so prominent in Drouais, and the different ways of portraying both lace and facial features make very clear that the Waddington's is very much an Amalfi and not at all resembles a Drouais.

Portrait of the Honorable Horatio Townshend CIRCLE OF ALLAN RAMSAY (According to Christie's)

An ACTUAL Allan Ramsay - 1743 Katherine Hall of Dunglass

At first glance not that dissimilar right? And let's remember it's just circle of Allan Ramsay, which just means an artist that lived in the same era and had a similar style but also one that was highly influenced by him.

So let's do a comparison

I know they're mostly women, it's just hard to find male front-facing Ramsay's, but either way again not too dissimilar, but we do find commonalities between the confirmed Ramsay's that we just don't see in the portrait of Horatio (the corners of the mouth are much more defined in Horatio, while the hairstrands are clearer in the Ramsay's, the area of the chin in all of the Ramsay's is more harshly delineated, and in general the shadows in the face of Horatio are much more prominent).

Now let's look at my suggestion

Now this one is a little wild, as I have no idea of how Horatio would end up in Switzerland, but I suggest Johan Rudolf Huber (swiss portraitist mainly active in Bern).

First of all his subjects tend to have a very characteristic head tilt also found in Horatio

1710 - Portrait of a Lady and 1730 - Portrait of a Lady both by Huber

He also commonly uses a strongly delineated downward curve either thin or thick under the mount to represent the beginning of the chin, a feature we can also see in the portrait of Horatio, and that is completely lacking in the Ramsay portraits which instead use a difuse shadowed area. The corners of the mount are also very prominent and strongly shadowed in both the Huber's and the Horatio

We also in see in both the Huber's and the Horatio a dark spot on the center of the chin, though certainly that found on Horatio is much more prominent.