Alessandro Longhi (Venice, Italy, 1733 – 1813) Title: Portrait of a young musician in front of his desk with a score in his hand Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: without frame 39.5 × 32.5 cm – with frame 46.7 x 39.2 x 5 cm Antique gilded and shaped wooden frame Not signed Expertise by Professor Giancarlo Sestieri Alessandro Longhi (1733-1813) was a Venetian portrait painter and printmaker in etching. He was born in Venice, Italy, and his father Pietro Longhi (1701-1785), was a painter and probably the first one to artistically train Alessandro. The character depicted in the painting could be a scholar, a collector or even a musician. It might be a collector judging by the statuette glimpsed to the right at the back of the studio, but it could also be a musician given the sheet music he holds in his right hand and the other scores on the table. The armrest of the chair from which the young man has just risen is of 18th-century Venetian workmanship, while the wig is an element almost always present in portraits by Alessandro Longhi.