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Portrait of an Unknown Sitter

Portrait of an Unknown Sitter

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This portrait of a Spanish youth dates to the middle of the seventeenth century. The young man wears a ruff collar over a burgundy doublet that features a row of gold buttons down the front alongside a gold chain. The rule of Hapsburg king Phillip IV (r. 1621-1665) was considered the peak of Spain’s Golden Age of painting. Portraiture was a particularly popular subject at the time. This portrait follows an example first set by late sixteenth-century Netherlandish artist Antonis Mor in his portraits of members of the Spanish Hapsburg dynasty, in its dark nondescript background and its focus on the garments that the sitter wears rather than objects as symbols of status. Per a typewritten statement attached to the painting’s stretcher, it was formerly in the collections of Baron Schroeder (1825-1910) of London and Ottavio Gigli (1816-1876) of Florence. In 1895, it was lent to an exhibition at London’s Grafton Galleries by Frederick Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol. All three were prominent collectors of artists such as Velazquez, Titian, Poussin, and Claude Lorrain.
Artist
Unknown (Spanish)
Title
Portrait of an Unknown Sitter
Date
ca. 1660
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
25 3/4 x 19 in. image
Credit
Bequest of Jost Hermand
Accession No.
2022.25.4
Classification
Paintings
Geography
Spain

Related

<span>Baron Schroeder [likely Sir John Henry Schroder (1825-1910), 1st Baronet and Baron von Schröder (London, England)] sold to Ottavio Gigli (1816-1876) (Florence, Italy); until 1876, collection of Ottavio Gigli; 1876, "a well known collector" [identity currently unknown]; by 1895, Frederick Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol [Hervey may have been the "well known collector" mentioned above] [2]; by 1932, painting in Boston, MA [3]; 27 September 1980, sold by Habib Anavian Persian &amp; Oriental Antiquities (New York, NY) to Jost Hermand (Madison, WI); 2021, bequeathed to the Chazen Museum of Art<br/>[1] Per typewritten statement attached to stretcher, this painting was formerly in the collection of Baron Schroeder who sold it to Ottavio Gigli of Florence, Italy. Also per the same typewritten statement, Ottavio Gigli retained the painting until his death in 1876 and it then passed into the collection of "a well known collector" (identity currently unknown) and was sold at his death.<br/>[2] In 1895, the painting was lent to an exhibition at the Grafton Gallerie), the painting was in the possession of Frederick Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol. <br/>[3] There is evidence that the painting was in the United States by 1932, as an Irving Trust Co. label on the stretcher verso indicates it was conserved by Charles Dunham (1860-1932), a restorer associated with the Fogg Art Museum in Boston, MA. Harvard Art Museums records indicate that The Irving Trust Company requested a number of paintings belonging to the Spicer Company Inc. returned in December 1930, as well as a receipt indicating their return in February 1931; it is unclear if this painting was one of them.</span>

  • Grafton Galleries. "Fair Children." London, England: Henry Good and Son, 1895. p. 18, cat. no. 74

  • Fair Children (1895): Grafton Galleries

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