File:Portrait of Joannes Josephus Comes Carretto de Milesimo (1723-1800) (by Martin van Meytens le Jeune).jpg

English: Martin van Meytens le Jeune

Portrait of Joannes Josephus Comes Carretto de Milesmo (1723-1800)

Inscribed with the name and age of the sitter and dated lower centre: Joannes Josephus Comes Carretto de Milesimo/aetatis Suae 19 tim annorum die 5ta Septembris 1742

Oil on canvas

86 x 64,5 cm; 33 3/4 by 25 3/8 in.

The sitter belongs to the Bohemian branch of the del Caretto family and lived from 1723 until 1800 and died in Autun, France.

The portrait was done about ten years after Meytens settled down in Vienna and is of fine quality. He had already become a popular artist among aristocratic circles and therefore had to establish a workshop which becomes more and more important (and has got an effect on the paintings' appearance). There exist portraits e.g. of Carl Alexander of Lorraine (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) or Prince Esterházy (present whereabouts unknown, sold at Dorotheum in 1999) that date from the same period and are – despite their different size – equal to the young Caretto.

Meytens, who documented influential personalities of his time in a highly impressive manner, numbers among the portraitists most preferred by the Austrian imperial family under Maria Theresa.