Portrait of a Man

c. 1575

Flemish

A mottled background, pitch-black costume, and bright ruff all serve to highlight the enigmatic visage of this unidentified man. Though his arresting gaze invites the viewer in, his face is also turned away and cast partially in shadow, as if he seeks to keep his distance from the individual on the other side of the picture plane. Other versions of this composition exist, suggesting that the man’s mysterious character and distinctive appearance captivated many artists and patrons of his time.

Status: On View, Gallery 208
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Flemish
Title: Portrait of a Man
Place: Flanders (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1570–1580
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 46.8 × 33.9 cm (18 7/16 × 13 3/8 in.); Framed: 61 × 48.6 × 5.1 cm (24 × 19 1/8 × 2 in.)
Credit Line: Samuel P. Avery Fund
Reference Number: 1951.224
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111078/manifest.json

Dora Zuntz, Frans Floris: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der niederländischen Kunst im XVI Jahrhundert (Strasbourg, 1929), 77, IIIb.
Christie, Mason and Wood, LTD, London, Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Pictures and Original Etchings Sold by Order of the Trustees of the Late Mrs. Helen H. Cowie removed from Rivensleigh, Dowanhill, Glasgow and From Other Sources, May 18, 1951, lot 62.
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., Paintings by Old Masters, July 1951. lot 16
Daniel Catton Rich, “In a Minor Key,” Art Institute Quarterly 47 (1953): 30–31; repr. The Art Quarterly 16, no. 3 (Autumn 1953): 267, 269.
Winslow Ames, “Swiss Export Table Tops,” Antiques 80, no. 1 (1961): 49, fig. 4.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute, 1961), 161–62.
Till-Holger Borchert et Koenraad Jonckheere, Portraits de la Penaissance aux Pays-Bas (Brussels: BOZAR, 2015), 184-85
Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and the Portrait Print, Victoria Sancho Lobis with essay by Maureen Warren (Chicago: Art Institute, distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2016)

London, P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., Paintings by Old Masters, July 1951, no. 16.
Brussels, Centre for Fine Arts, Renaissance Portraits of the Low Countries, February 5-September 12, 2015.
Art Institute of Chicago, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and the Portrait Print, March 5-August 7, 2016, cat. 8.

Probably Charles Jennens (died 1773), Gopsall, Leicestershire, by 1767; by descent to Richard George Penn Curzon, 4th Earl Howe, Gopsall, until 1918 [according to letter from Gabriel Naughton, Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, April 18, 2000, and letter from Frederick, Earl Howe, July 22, 2000, in curatorial file]; sold to Agnew’s, London, 1918; sold by Agnew’s to W. L. Peacock and Co., London, 1921 [according to Naughton letter cited above]. Mrs. Helen Hilston Cowie (died 1947), Ravensleigh, Dowanhill, Glasgow; by descent to her husband Thomas Rennie Cowie (died 1950); sold by her heirs at Christie’s, London, May 18, 1951, no. 62, to P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., London, for £85; sold by Colnaghi to the Art Institute, 1951.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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