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Lot Essay
According to the inscription, this portrait was painted in 1537, when the sitter was 61 years old. Though his identity remains a mystery, his frontal pose lends him an air of authority and self-confidence. His face, though wizened, retains a youthful vitality consistent with a man in his early sixties. He wears a black hat with a gold hat badge, over a dark cap, beneath which wisps of gray hair are visible. His affluence is evident from his clothing, which includes a brown patterned jacket with a wide, fur collar and a doublet with reddish-orange satin sleeves. The scallop shell pendant hanging from a thin cord around his neck identifies him as a member of the chivalric Order of Santiago, further indicating that he was a man of considerable status. His importance is also suggested by the existence of another version of this portrait, which was sold at Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2000, lot 13 (as the Master of the 1540s).
Until recently, the present Portrait of a gentleman was attributed to the Master of the 1540s, an anonymous painter active in Antwerp following the death of Joos van Cleve, to whom Max Friedländer ascribed around thirty portraits of mostly merchant-class men and women (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, XIII, Antonis Mor and his Contemporaries, trans. H. Norden, Leiden and Brussels, 1975, p. 46-50). This former attribution seems dubious, however, as the quality of the present portrait is far superior to any of the best paintings ascribed to the Master of the 1540s. Details such as the painstakingly-rendered silver strands of the beard and the subtle coloring of the sitter's blue eyes--speckled with touches of hazel--which reflect the unseen light-source--and the masterful treatment of the drapery folds in the sitter's sleeves, have no counterparts within the Master of the 1540s oeuvre.
Moreover, the general character of our picture is German, rather than Netherlandish. In its style and composition, the Portrait of a gentleman recalls several portraits that Hans Holbein the Younger painted of members of the Hanseatic League of merchants in London in the early 1530s, during his second visit to England. Indeed, Holbein's portraits of Hermann Hillebrandt von Wedigh (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 4234) and Cyriacus Kale (Herzog Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick), both dated 1533, have much in common with the present painting. In all three, the sitters are frontally posed against blue backgrounds while holding gloves, their heads flanked by inscriptions. Agreeing with the notion that the present portrait was produced in Augsburg in the vicinity of Holbein, Till-Holger Borchert has also pointed out similarities to the work of the Augsburg painter Ulrich Apt the Elder (c. 1460-1532). Though Apt was no longer living by the time the present portrait was painted, Borchert suggests that works such as Apt's Portrait of a man (formerly attributed to the Master of the Hutz Portrait; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. 5624), is comparable in terms of posture and type, raising the possibility that this portrait was created in Augsburg (personal communication, 27 October 2013).
Until recently, the present Portrait of a gentleman was attributed to the Master of the 1540s, an anonymous painter active in Antwerp following the death of Joos van Cleve, to whom Max Friedländer ascribed around thirty portraits of mostly merchant-class men and women (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, XIII, Antonis Mor and his Contemporaries, trans. H. Norden, Leiden and Brussels, 1975, p. 46-50). This former attribution seems dubious, however, as the quality of the present portrait is far superior to any of the best paintings ascribed to the Master of the 1540s. Details such as the painstakingly-rendered silver strands of the beard and the subtle coloring of the sitter's blue eyes--speckled with touches of hazel--which reflect the unseen light-source--and the masterful treatment of the drapery folds in the sitter's sleeves, have no counterparts within the Master of the 1540s oeuvre.
Moreover, the general character of our picture is German, rather than Netherlandish. In its style and composition, the Portrait of a gentleman recalls several portraits that Hans Holbein the Younger painted of members of the Hanseatic League of merchants in London in the early 1530s, during his second visit to England. Indeed, Holbein's portraits of Hermann Hillebrandt von Wedigh (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 4234) and Cyriacus Kale (Herzog Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick), both dated 1533, have much in common with the present painting. In all three, the sitters are frontally posed against blue backgrounds while holding gloves, their heads flanked by inscriptions. Agreeing with the notion that the present portrait was produced in Augsburg in the vicinity of Holbein, Till-Holger Borchert has also pointed out similarities to the work of the Augsburg painter Ulrich Apt the Elder (c. 1460-1532). Though Apt was no longer living by the time the present portrait was painted, Borchert suggests that works such as Apt's Portrait of a man (formerly attributed to the Master of the Hutz Portrait; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. 5624), is comparable in terms of posture and type, raising the possibility that this portrait was created in Augsburg (personal communication, 27 October 2013).