Portrait of a young boy, bust length, in a striped vest and grey jacket

This engaging portrait was painted by Martin Drölling in 1792, only a year before the artist first exhibited at the Salon du Louvre. The sitter is unidentified but can be compared with the Portrait of the artist's son, Michel-Martin, as a drummer (sold, Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 157). In this portrait the signs of childhood, the spinning top and drum, are absent, leaving the sitter with an earnest, independent character.