Portrait of Baron Philipp von Stosch (1691-1757) in his study with a servant holding a flask

The Prussian antiquary Philipp von Stosch began his Grand Tour in 1709 and on arrival in Rome was introduced to the circle of Pope Clement IX and his nephew Alessandro Albani. He later settled in the city, where he became an influential dealer in art and antiques, a passionate collector of books, gems, prints and drawings and a spy for the British government, reporting the activities of the exiled Jacobite court. After he was unmasked as a spy in 1731, he fled to Florence where he lived on a British pension until his death. He is generally credited with having made the monocle a fashionable accessory, and is seen wearing it in the present drawing.

Von Stosch was represented on numerous occasions by Ghezzi. Another version of the present drawing is in the Codice Ottoboni in the Biblioteca Vaticana (inv. 3116). In a drawing in the Albertina he appears in the same pose with his pet owl seated on the back of his chair, receiving the antiquaries of Rome; a version of that composition, dated 1728, is in the Biblioteca Vaticana (inv. 1265; V. Birke and Kertész, Die Italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina, Vienna, 1994, vol. II, p. 689). In another drawing in Vienna he displays his collection to a young friend (Vienna, Albertina, inv. 1266; Birke and Kertész, op. cit., p. 690), and in a drawing at Chatsworth, dressed in coat and periwig, he examines antique gems with Marcantonio Sabbatini (inv. 641; M. Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings: Roman and Neapolitan Schools, London, 1994, no. 194). All the drawings presumably date from around 1728, shortly before von Stosch was forced to flee Rome.