This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Portraits

Portraits

AFTER RAPHAEL (1483-1520)

A self-portrait of Raphael

c.1853-1876

Albumen print | 27.0 x 16.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 850005

A photograph of a drawing by Raphael (c.1498-1499) now in the British Museum (inv. no.1860,0616.94). This drawing is most likely a self-portrait by Raphael which has been inscribed by a later hand "Ritratto di se medessimo quando giovane", which translates as "portrait of himself when a youth". The same inscription is found on a drawing now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no. WA1846.158; see RCIN 850007 for a photograph of it).

This drawing features various anatomical studies on the verso (see RCIN 854384 for a photograph of the verso).
  • Creator(s)

    After Raphael (1483-1520) (artist)

    Subject(s)

    Raphael (1483-1520)
  • 27.0 x 16.0 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

  • Object type(s)
      • visual works
        • photographs
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    Italian Drawings [...] British Museum: Raphael and his circle: catalogue, 1962 / Philip Pouncey and J.A. Gere, London pp. 2-3, n.1

    Joannides 1983 : Joannides, P., 1983. The Drawings of Raphael, with a complete catalogue, Oxford p. 135, no. 7v

    Other number(s)

    Ruland p.3 A.II.1