Dirk Bouts, 'Portrait of a Man (Jan van Winckele?)', 1462
About the work
Overview
A fair-haired man stands in an interior, gazing past us. Through the window behind him we can see a landscape with a church in the distance. The date on the back wall makes this the earliest datable – and in fact the only dated painting – by Bouts, and the earliest dated portrait to include an open window looking onto a landscape. Curiously the date’s first three numbers appear to be carved into the plaster, while the fourth stands proud of it.
We are not sure who the sitter is but he might be Jan van Winckele, a prominent citizen of Louvain where Bouts was living in the 1460s, and a friend of the artist. In 1462 van Winckele was given an important post in the university administration. The portrait was perhaps made to commemorate this event.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Portrait of a Man (Jan van Winckele?)
- Artist
- Dirk Bouts
- Artist dates
- 1400? - 1475
- Date made
- 1462
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 31.6 × 20.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
- Inventory number
- NG943
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 20th-century Replica Frame
Provenance
The portrait was by 1831 in the collection of Karl Aders (1780–1846), a German merchant who lived in London. It was sold with the rest of the Aders collection at Foster’s on 1 August 1835 (no. 111) to Solly – presumably the collector Edward Solly (1776–1848). By 1844, it belonged to the poet and collector Samuel Rogers (1763–1855), after whose death it was sold at Christie’s on 2 May 1856 (no. 599) to Pearce. This was the dealer William Warburton Pearce, who was probably buying for Wynn Ellis (1790–1875). Certainly in Wynn Ellis’s possession by 1857, it was, at the time of his death, in the library of his residence at 30 Cadogan Square, London. Wynn Ellis bequeathed his collection to the National Gallery and NG 943 was one of the paintings accepted by the Trustees in 1876.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Lorne Campbell, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools’, London 1998; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2019Making a Masterpiece: Bouts and Beyond, 1450-2020York Art Gallery11 October 2019 - 26 January 2020
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2021Remember meRijksmuseum Amsterdam30 September 2021 - 16 January 2022
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2023Dieric Bouts. Creator of imagesM - Museum Leuven20 October 2023 - 14 January 2024
Bibliography
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1833J.D. Passavant, Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, Frankfurt am Main 1833
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1835E. Foster & Son, A Catalogue of the Very Rare Collection of Italian, Ancient German, Dutch and Flemish Pictures: The Property of Charles Aders, Esq., London, 1 August 1835
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1840O. Delepierre, Galerie d'artistes Brugeois, ou, Biographie concise des peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs célèbres de Bruges, Bruges 1840
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1844A.M. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: Containing Accurate Catalogues, Arranged Alphabetically, for Immediate Reference, Each Preceded by an Historical & Critical Introduction […], London 1844
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1856Christie & Manson, Catalogue of the Very Celebrated Collection of Works of Art: The Property of Samuel Rogers, Esq., London, 28 April 1856
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1857J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, The Early Flemish Painters: Notices of Their Lives and Works, London 1857
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1877R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of Pictures in the National Gallery, British School, Foreign Schools, London 1877
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1881E. Reusens, Documents relatifs a l'histoire de l'Université de Louvain (1425-1797), Louvain 1881
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1888E.T. Cook, A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery Including, by Special Permission, Notes Collected from the Works of Mr. Ruskin, London 1888
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1888T. von Frimmel (ed.), Der Anonimo Morelliano, Vienna 1888
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1889National Gallery, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery with Biographical Notices of the Painters: Foreign Schools, London 1889
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1907A. van Hove, 'Statuts de l'université de Louvain antérieurs à l'année 1459', Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, LXVII, 1907, pp. 597-662
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1911G. Ludwig, Archivalische Beiträge zur Geschichte der venezianischen Kunst, eds W. Bode and G. Gronau, Italienische Forschungen herausgegeben vom Kunsthistorischen Institut in Florenz 4, Florence 1911
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1911National Gallery, An Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1911
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1928H. de Vocht, Literae virorum eruditorum ad Franciscum Craneveldium, 1522-1528, Louvain 1928
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1945Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, London 1945
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1953M. Davies, The National Gallery, London, Les Primitifs flamands. I, Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pay-Bas méridionaux au quinzième siècle 3, 2 vols, Antwerp 1953
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1953E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character, Cambridge 1953
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1955Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1955
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1967M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, eds N. Veronée-Verhaegen and H. Pauwels, trans. H. Norden, 14 vols, Leiden 1967
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1970N.R. Ker, '"For All That I May Clamp": Louvain Students and Lecture Rooms in the Fifteenth Century', Medium aevum, XXXIX, 1970
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1975J.M. Collier, Linear Perspective in Flemish Painting and the Art of Petrus Christus and Dieric Bouts, Phd Thesis, Michigan University 1975
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1977J. Goossens, 'De oudste algemene statuten van de universiteiten van Keulen en Leuven: Een vergelijkende tekstanalyse', Archives et bibliothèques de Belgique, XLVIII, 1977, pp. 42-78
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1984R. Salvini, Banchieri fiorentini e pittori di Fiandra, Modena 1984
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1986M. Scott, A Visual History of Costume: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, London 1986
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1987Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Netherlandish School, 3rd edn, London 1987
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1989M. Lucco, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Quattrocento, 2 vols, Milan 1989
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1990R. Aubaert, Leuven University 1425-1985, Louvain 1990
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1990L. Campbell, Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries, New Haven 1990
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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1993J. Sander, Niederländische Gemälde im Städel, 1400-1550, Mainz 1993
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1993W. Le Loup, 'Pierre Jean de Vlamynck (1795-1850). Brugs graveur en tekenaar', Jaarboek: Brugge Stedelijke Musea, 1993, pp. 209-49
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1994H. Belting and C. Kruse, Die Erfindung des Gemäldes: Das erste Jahrhundert der niederländischen Malerei, Munich 1994
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1994D. Marechal, 'Memlings faam en fictie', Brugge Stedelijke Musea en Museumvrienden: Museum Bulletin, XIV/5, 1994
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1995Le dictionnaire des peintres belges du XIVe siècle à nos jours, Brussels 1995
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1995P. Lorentz, Hans Memling au Louvre, Paris 1995
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1995D. Martens, 'Le Maître des Portraits Baroncelli: Un élève de Petrus Christus?', Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis en Oudheidkunde, XXX, 1995, pp. 71-105
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1996J.-C. Frère, Les primitifs flamands, Paris 1996
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1997E. Langmuir, Landscape, London 1997
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1998Campbell, Lorne, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings, London 1998
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2005J. Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575, ed. L. Silver, New Jersey 2005
Frame
This is a reproduction frame made in England in the 1970s from pinewood, in the style of a sixteenth-century Northern European box frame. Black, ochre and gold have been added onto the surface of the frame, creating a marbled appearance.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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