Portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos with a Page
Portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos with a Page is a 1533 oil on canvas by Titian. It shows Alfonso d'Avalos, a general in the service of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The painting measures 110 cm by 80 cm and is in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where it has been since 2004. Titian made the work in Bologna and it was the third Titian in the Getty’s collection after Venus and Adonis and Penitent Magdalene.
The picture was passed down in the d'Avalos family, later to Alfonso's son Francesco Ferdinando d'Avalos (c. 1530–1571), and probably stayed with the family for a time. It moved to Poland at an unknown date and was owned by kings John III Sobieski and Stanislaus Augustus. It likely went to the Potocki family, who kept it until 1921 when Alfred Potocki sold it to countess Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague (1870–1939). She left it to her nephew Hubert de Ganay. In 1989 de Ganay's heirs auctioned much of the collection, and in 1990 the insurance company AXA bought the Titian for 65 million francs. AXA lent the painting to the Louvre for twelve years with an option to buy it for 65 million francs plus inflation. The Louvre’s director Pierre Rosenberg arranged the deal, but his successor Henri Loyrette let the twelve years expire, and the Getty then bought the work for about $70 million. Because the painting was privately owned and the French state chose not to buy it, France could not block the sale outside the country.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 12:46 (CET).