Sir Andrew Fountaine, who had been educated and Eton at Christ Church, travelled extensively in Germany and Italy in 1701-3. In 1714 he set out on a second tour, making a prolonged visit to Paris, where he remained until at least February 1715. By August he was at Turin: he is recorded at Rome in February 1716 and in Venice in September of that year. While in Florence, presumably in the winter of 1715-16, Fountaine frequented the court and met the septuagenarian Grand Duke, a series of five letters from whom. written between 1718 and 1721, establish that the two established a friendship unusual between a prince and a visiting tourist. The painter Giulio Pignatta was commissioned to paint Fountaine, with friends including Captain William Price, the Hon. Anthony Lowther, later 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, and the Hon. Richard Arundel in the Tribuna of the Uffizi. Sir Andrew's interest in the grand ducal collection and more specifically in the celebrated gallery of self-portraits is attested by evidence that he was instrumental in the presentation to this of portraits by both Antonio Domenico Gabbiani and Giuseppe Chiari. It is tempting to suppose that he was given this portrait by the Grand Duke perhaps on account of its small dimensions and because it was in effect duplicated by the larger version, which is first certainly recorded in the Medici collection in 1704. While there is no documentary evidence of the gift - and it should be emphasised that Fountaine's travels are not extensively documented - the letters of 1718-21 already mentioned establish that the Grand Duke sent Fountaine several presents of wine, as well as 'il Gruppo dell Soldani', presumably a bronze which has not been traced. For the fullest account of Fountaine's travels, see Andrew W. Moore, Norfolk and the Grand Tour, 1985, pp.27-31 and nos.15-44