Young Man drawing
XVIII century. Oil on panel.Not on display
Inside a room, a young man is copying a classical bust by candlelight. Since 1910 this work appears in the Museo del Prado catalogues as signed and dated on the lower left angle (G. J. Palthe f. 1732), but there is no longer any evidence of this. The scene is typical of the kind painted by Godfried Schalcken (P2078), of whom Palthe was a follower. The young man, the bust and the candle also crop up in another panel -though depicted from the other side- attributed to the circle of Schalcken, which appeared in the art market in 1999 (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 309).
