Italian, 'Bust of a Bearded Man', 17th century
About the work
Overview
In this small, oval-shaped portrait, an unidentified man turns his head slightly towards the viewer and looks directly out of the picture. A white shirt collar emerges from beneath his sober black jacket, which has small buttons running down the front. The reverse of the painting is inscribed with the date 1661, but this seems unlikely as the sitter’s costume is datable to earlier in the seventeenth century.
This small-scale portrait is painted on a walnut panel and was probably intended to be portable, particularly since its wooden support would have been more robust than canvas.
When the painting entered the National Gallery’s collection in 1906, it was attributed to Annibale Carracci, an artist whose portraits share a similar directness. More recently the work was considered to be by a Flemish artist, perhaps on the basis that it is painted on panel, but the style of this portrait is more likely Italian.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Bust of a Bearded Man
- Artist
- Italian
- Date made
- 17th century
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 25.7 × 18.7 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by the Misses Cohen as part of the John Samuel collection, 1906
- Inventory number
- NG2105
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1895Catalogue of Pictures by Italian Masters of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Collected by John Samuel, London 1895
-
1907M.H. Spielmann, 'The Samuel Bequest to the National Gallery', The Connoisseur, XVIII, 1907, pp. 35-40
-
1907London, National Gallery Archive, NG17/6: Annual Report of the Trustees of the National Gallery for the Year 1906, 1907
-
1958The National Gallery, The National Gallery: July 1956 - June 1958, London 1958
-
1971M. Levey, The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1971
-
1986Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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.