Oil on Canvas
44 ½ x 34 ins. (113 x 86.5 cm.)
Provenance
Captain George Pitt-Rivers, Manor House, Hinton, St. Mary, Dorset;
J. Lester Eisner, New York, (as by Johnnes Verspronck);
Gift of J. Lester Eisner to the Hickory Museum of Art, North Carolina, 1948 (as by Johannes Verspronck);
De-accessioned, 2009.
While the authorship of this exceptionally fine portrait remains as yet unresolved, it is amongst the most handsome and arresting portraits produced in England during the 1620’s.
Abraham van Blyenburgh, one of the leading artists active in England at this time, has been suggested as the possible author of this painting, however the handling is more refined and of a higher quality that van Blyenburgh is known to have produced. Prior to its de-accession from the Hickory Museum of Art in 2009, it was regarded as by the great dutch portraitist, Johannes Verspronck (1597 – 1662), however that attribution can no longer be sustained on stylistic grounds. What does appear certain is that it was executed in England in the 1620’s, most probably by an itinerant Flemish painter who was evidently of the first rank(i).
The elegant costume in this painting compares very closely to Daniel Mytens’ portrait of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran of 1623 (Tate Gallery, London)(ii). In her notice of that painting, Karen Hearn points out that “Arran’s somber attire may reflect the Spanish fashion for black, a result of Philip IV’s dress reform laws, introduced in March 1623, banning the wearing of rich materials and ornaments”(iii). Similar fashion trends were afoot in England at this time. In 1622, Henry Peacham published The Compleat Gentleman, in which he urged frugality and modesty in clothing, his ideal being the Emperor Charles V, because he dressed “as plaine as any ordinary gentleman, commonly in blacke or sadde stuffe, without lace or any other extraordinary cost” (iv).
The sitter in our portrait is wearing a matching black silk doublet and breaches, the waistband decorated with silk ribbon ‘points’ and silver aglets, which would have made an attractive clicking sound when the wearer moved. At his neck he wears a falling ruff, while in his left hand, he holds a pair of Cordovan leather gloves, as befits his gentlemanly status. The sitter’s auburn hair and immaculately groomed beard are beautifully rendered.
(i) Due to the paucity of indigenous painters of the first rank in England during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Netherlandish artists were frequently called upon to fill the void. The practice of signing ones work, especially portraiture, was not yet commonplace, and accordingly many of the finest artists working in England during this period remain unknown.
(ii) Dynasties, Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630, Karen Hearn, 1995, Cat. 147, pp.218-219 (illustrated).
(iii) Karen Hearn, ibid, p.218. Arran had recently returned from Spain.