Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat

early 1630s

Flemish 17th century

Painter, Flemish, 1600 - 1699

Jan Cossiers

Painter, Flemish, 1600 - 1671

Shown from the hips up, a pale-skinned man with a Van Dyck beard stands with one hand on his hip in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body faces our right almost in profile, but he turns his head to look at us from the corners of his brown eyes under lifted, black brows. The bridge of his nose is slightly flattened, and he has full pink lips, a pointed chin, and chin-length, wavy black hair. His mustache flares upward at the ends, and a line of hair grows down his chin. The wide brim of his hat would nearly have reached his shoulders, but it sits angled on the back of his head. Layers of white lace create a round collar resting on his chest over a black jacket. The coat is slashed over the chest and upper arms of the sleeves so the white shirt underneath is visible. The jacket is also partially unbuttoned over his torso. The cuff we can see reaches from his wrist along his forearm and is edged in lace. The back of that hand rests against that hip, and the cloth of a black cloak is bunched up around that hand. Black drapery fills most of the background but is pulled back to our right to reveal a landscape with a sunset-streaked sky.

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With one arm akimbo and a penetrating, forthright stare, this dashing young man with his wide-brimmed hat exudes confidence and strength. His erect stance as well as the crisp, angular folds of his black satin cloak heighten the impression that he was a man of purpose. The portrait's strength also emanates from the artist's bold execution—the paint was applied thickly and with great verve and assurance. The composition, with the unknown sitter before a dark, almost black drapery pulled back to reveal the orange-red glow of an evening landscape, is extremely evocative, indicating that the artist was of the highest rank.

Various 17th-century masters have been linked to the portrait, among them Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), and Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), though none of these attributions is fully convincing. The Flemish artist Jan Cossiers (1600–1671 is also a possibility. Having trained with Cornelis de Vos (c. 1584/1585–1651), he would have had a solid foundation in portraiture. Notably, his manner of accenting the eyes in his drawings of children resembles that in the portrait at the Gallery. The style of the sitter's costume offers a dating in the mid-1630s. Prior to that time, doublets were tightly buttoned from collar to waist and fastened to the breeches with ties around the waist. Around 1630 styles changed and shirts were shown at the waist of the open doublet, as seen in the Gallery's portrait. The sitter's beard, mustache, and hairstyle were also fashionable in the early 1630s.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 46

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 105.5 x 73.5 cm (41 9/16 x 28 15/16 in.)
    framed: 132.1 x 101 cm (52 x 39 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1969.2.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d'Orléans [1723-1793], Paris; possibly George Kinnaird, 7th baron Kinnaird [d. 1805], Rossie Priory, Inchture, Perthshire, Scotland;[1] his son, Charles Kinnaird, 8th baron Kinnaird [1780-1826], Rossie Priory, by 1809; (his sale, Phillips, London, February-March 1813, no. 85, as Portrait of a Spanish Nobleman by Velázquez, bought in);[2] by inheritance to his son, George William Fox Kinnaird, 9th baron Kinnaird [1807-1878], Rossie Priory; by inheritance to his brother, Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird, 10th baron Kinnaird [1814-1887], Rossie Priory; by inheritance to his son, Arthur J. Fitzgerald Kinnaird, 11th baron Kinnaird [1847-1923], Rossie Priory; by inheritance to his son, Kenneth Fitzgerald Kinnaird, 12th baron Kinnaird [1880-1972], Rossie Priory; by gift or inheritance to his eldest son, Graham Charles Kinnaird, Master of Kinnaird [later 13th baron Kinnaird, 1912-1997], Rossie Priory; purchased 13 May 1969 through (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London) by NGA.
[1] An inscription on the verso of the painting reads "Gen.L [General] Velasquez by Rubens bought from the Orléans Gallery by Lord Kinniard [sic]." The 7th baron Kinnaird did play an important role in the English syndicate that was involved in the dispersal of the Orléans collection in the 1790s (see Denys Sutton, "Aspects of British Collecting, Part III: XIII The Orléans Collection," Apollo 119 (May 1984): 357-372). However, it has not been possible to identify the painting in descriptions of the Orléans collection, and the painting does not appear to be listed in the catalogue of that collection's Dutch and Flemish paintings when they were exhibited for sale by private contract in London from April to June 1793. Burton Fredericksen has kindly searched his records related to the Orléans and Kinnaird collections, and, despite the inscription, does not believe the painting was in the Orléans collection (correspondence of 11 November 2004, in NGA curatorial files). The identification in the inscription is that given the painting in the 1879 exhibition at the Royal Academy, so perhaps the inscription dates from that time.
[2] While it is not yet known when or from what source the painting entered the Kinnaird collection, it was there by 1809. Henry Bone (1755-1834) copied the painting as an enamel miniature (sale, Bonhams, London, 22 May 2003, no. 127). The inscription on the verso reads, in part: "London / Decr 1809 ... after the original / by Valesquez [sic] in the Collection of the Rt Honble / Lord Kinnaird." A preparatory pencil drawing for the miniature is in an album of Bone drawings in the library of the National Portrait Gallery, London (see: Richard Walker, "Henry Bone's Pencil Drawings," The Walpole Society LXI [1999]: 360, no. 686, fig. 180).
The painting was engraved c. 1813 by James Fittler (1758-1835), by which time the designation had changed from Velázquez to Rubens. Gustav-Friedrich Waagen (Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c.. [Forming a supplemental volume to Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols.], London, 1857: 447) saw the painting at Rossie Priory and also attributed it to Rubens, an attribution that was maintained, although the painting was given various titles, until Michael Jaffé reattributed it to Jordaens in 1968 (Jacob Jordaens 1593-1678, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1968: no. 36).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1879

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London, 1879, no. 60, as Portrait of a Man, said to be General Velazquez by Rubens.

1938

  • Exhibition of 17th Century Art in Europe, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1938, no. 92, as by Rubens.

1968

  • Jacob Jordaens 1593-1678, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1968-1969, no. 36, repro.

1969

  • In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 3(1930): 223, no. 793, as by Rubens.

1857

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c., visited in 1854 and 1856, ..., forming a supplemental volume to the "Treasures of Art in Great Britain." London, 1857: 447, as by Rubens.

1883

  • Curtis, Charles B. Velazquez and Murillo. New York and London, 1883: 84, under no. 206, as by Rubens.

1890

  • Rooses, Max. L'Oeuvre de P.P. Rubens: histoire et description de ses tabelaux et dessins. 5 vols. Antwerp, 1896-1892: 4(1890): 315-316, no. 1143, and 322, as by Rubens.

1938

  • Mayer, August L. "Some Notes on Recent Exhibitions." The Burlington Magazine 72 (April 1938): 190, as by Jan Cossiers.

1969

  • d'Hulst, Roger-A.. "Jordaens" (exhibition review). The Art Bulletin LI (1969):382, as not by Jordaens

1970

  • Jaffé, Michael. "Some Recent Acquisitions of Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painting." Studies in the History of Art 1969 (1970): 23-26, 33 note 52, repro., as by Jordaens.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 182, repro., as by Jordaens.

1979

  • Larsen, Erik. "New Suggestions Concerning George Jamesone." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 94 (July-August 1979): 9-18, as by George Jamesone.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 259, no. 330, color repro., as by Jordaens.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 211, repro., as by Jordaens.

1986

  • Barnes, Susan J. "Van Dyck in Italy 1621-1628." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1986: 1:78 notes 44, 46; 2:99, repro., as by Jordaens.

1992

  • Bauman, Guy C., and Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Fleming Paintings in the Public Collections of America. Antwerp, 1992: 345, no. 301, repro., as by Jordaens.

1993

  • Sutten, Peter C., and Marjorie E. Wieseman, et al. The Age of Rubens Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art. Boston, 1993: 348, repro., as by Jordaens.

2005

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 103-107, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20177105

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