Object data
oil on panel
support: height 27.2 cm × width 20.7 cm × height c. 25.2 cm × width c. 19.2 cm
anonymous
Portrait of a Man
Northern Netherlands, c. 1530 - c. 1540
Technical notes
The support consists of two vertically grained oak planks, approx. 0.7 cm thick. Only the left plank (15.6 cm) appears to be original. The right plank (3.7 cm) seems to have been added at a later date. The panel has been set in a construction with oak strips along all sides (painted surface: approx. 25.2 x 19.3 cm), making it impossible to view the edges of the support. It seems likely, though, that the panel was cut down at some stage. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring of the left plank was formed in 1509. The left plank could have been ready for use by 1520, but a date in or after 1536 is more likely. The smoothly applied ground is light in colour and was applied up to the edges. An underdrawing was not detected with infrared reflectography. The figure was left in reserve, as was the feather in the beret, the contours of which were painted over the grey-green background. The face was painted wet in wet and consists of only one paint layer. The highlights, such as the whitish tip of the nose, were painted directly on top of this layer.
Scientific examination and reports
- condition report: I. Verslype, RMA, 1 March 2006
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 11 August 2006
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG501, 9 January 2008
Condition
Fair. The background is strongly discoloured. There is considerable overpainting on the right plank, especially in the man’s left shoulder. The very thick varnish is discoloured.
Provenance
...; sale, Dr James Simon, (1851-1932, Berlin), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 October 1927 sqq., no. 45, as Jan van Scorel, to the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague;1 from which, fl. 13,200, to Isaäc de Bruijn(1872-1953), Spiez and Muri, near Bern;2 donated to the museum by Isaäc de Bruijn and his wife, Johanna Geertruida de Bruijn- van der Leeuw (1877-1960), Spiez and Muri, near Bern, 1949, but kept in usufruct;3 transferred to the museum, 1961
Object number: SK-A-4056
Credit line: De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Anonymous, northern Netherlands
Entry
This man with a short ginger beard is portrayed as a bust with his head turned to the left as he leans forwards slightly. Over his white shirt he wears a dark grey doublet, and on his head he has a small grey beret with a feather. Hoogewerff thought that it was a portrait of a forester because of the clothing and the man’s tanned face,4 but it is impossible to deduce his occupation from his attire, however informal. Both the pose and the presentation are odd for a bust, so it is very likely that the painting is incomplete. It may be a fragment of a half or three-quarter length, or could once have been part of a larger scene.5
The attribution to Jan van Scorel in the 1927 sale catalogue and in Friedländer is untenable.6 The portrait lacks the plasticity found in Scorel’s portraits, and the execution is flat and schematic. Hoogewerff tentatively attributed the painting to Dirck Barendsz, but that was rightly rejected by Judson.7 For the time being, then, the painter remains anonymous.
The portrait can probably be dated 1530-40 on the evidence of the style and clothing, and this is confirmed by the dendrochronology.
(J. Niessen)
Literature
Friedländer XII, 1935, p. 205, no. 364 (as Jan van Scorel); Hoogewerff IV, 1941-42, p. 639 (as Dirck Barendsz or Lambert Sustris); Jaffé 1944, p. 38 (as Jan van Scorel); Cleveringa 1961, p. 67, no. 20; Judson 1970, p. 156, no. U10; ENP XII, 1975, p. 127, no. 364 (as Jan van Scorel)
Collection catalogues
1976, p. 653, no. A 4056
Citation
J. Niessen, 2010, 'anonymous, Portrait of a Man, Northern Netherlands, c. 1530 - c. 1540', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4786
(accessed 24 November 2024 00:18:26).