Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart), 'An Elderly Couple', about 1520

An Elderly Couple

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

Not on display

About the work

Overview

An elderly couple stare past each other – and us – in this astonishing study of old age. Although prosperously dressed, the pair seem disappointed: their mouths are turned resolutely down, their eyes dull and their jowls sagging. Although they overlap, each figure makes a self-contained triangle; their isolation is in vivid contrast to the classical lovers embracing in the cameo in the man’s hat.

The only indication of who they are is their clothing, which suggest a North Netherlandish origin and a date in the 1510s, although given their age they may not have dressed in the latest fashions. Unusually, the painting is on parchment, perhaps to make it easier to transport. It might not have been painted for the sitters, but for some distant friend or relative. They may never have seen the finished painting and never been aware of Gossart’s merciless observation of their agedness.

In-depth

An elderly couple stare past each other – and us – in this astonishing study of old age. Although prosperously dressed, the pair seem disappointed: their mouths are turned resolutely down, their eyes dull and their jowls sagging. The man clutches rather desperately at his fur collar and his staff, while his wife gazes vacantly into the middle distance.

Although they overlap, each figure makes a self-contained triangle; their isolation is in vivid contrast to the classical lovers in the cameo in the man’s hat. The naked couple embrace in front of a tree; he seems to be holding a staff, she a cornucopia. They could be Mercury and Fortuna, the gods of trade and prosperity, referring to the sitters' worldly success, or possibly the lovers Venus and Mars – a bitter commentary on lost youth and passion.

Although the woman is depicted behind the man, and although in reality her head was probably not as large his, her face is only very slightly smaller. She appears to be the younger and stronger of the two. She still has most of her teeth, while he has lost his; she is tidily dressed while he is dishevelled and poorly shaven, with fallen hairs curling around the ribbons of his hat and on his fur collar. She makes a bolder pattern of simple shapes, while his contours, as well as his body, are crumpled. He is shrinking – literally, for his body is much too small in proportion to his head. Though the two may not be communicating, she appears to buttress his shrivelled form.

The only indication of their identity is in their clothing. The man’s hat badge, which was probably created by Gossart, may nevertheless suggest that he took an interest in classical antiquity. His silver-topped staff and fur-lined gown show that he is prosperous. The cap with its two trailing ribbons is of a type found fairly frequently in North Netherlandish portraits: it was perhaps a North Netherlandish fashion to wear such hats, which might have denoted a certain status. Their clothes were in fashion in the 1510s but, given their age, they may not have kept up with the latest fashions.

Unusually, the painting is on parchment, perhaps to make it easier to transport. It might not have been painted for the sitters, but for some distant friend or relative. The heads were painted in different ways – the woman’s was carefully underdrawn and there were few changes in the final paint layer, while the man’s is more sketchy with many alterations; he may have been painted after the woman. The pair may never have seen the finished painting, may never have been aware of Gossart’s merciless observation of their agedness or the pitiful contrast between the young gods on the hat badge and their own physical state.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: An Elderly Couple
Artist: Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)
Artist dates: active 1508; died 1532
Date made: about 1520
Medium and support: oil on parchment, mounted on canvas
Dimensions: 48.1 × 69.2 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1900
Inventory number: NG1689
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: William Wells
Frame: 16th-century Flemish Frame

Provenance

NG 1689 was possibly the ‘Two Portraits in one Picture – very animated and elaborately finished’ which, attributed to Quinten Massys, was sold at Christie’s on 21 May 1808 (lot 120) by ‘Burrell’: Sir Charles Merrik Burrell (1774–1862), MP. It was bought, for the very high price of £215 5s., by Hill – the dealer Philip Hill (c. 1766–1836) of Greek Street, Soho. It reappeared as no. 17, ‘Massys, The Portrait of Foger (and his Wife,)...’, in Hill’s exhibition of ‘capital Pictures for Sale by Private Contract’ which began on 16 April 1810 at the Old Academy Room, 118 Pall Mall. It was once again sold at a very high price, 300 guineas (£315). NG 1689 was certainly by 1824 in the collection of Landseer’s friend and patron William Wells (1760–1847) of Redleaf in Kent, where it was attributed to Massys. It was sold with the rest of Wells’s pictures at Christie’s on 13 May 1847 (76), bought by Seguier for Mrs Whyte. She was Maria Louisa Simpson (1773–1855), widow of the lawyer Mark Anthony Whyte (died 1838), and lived at Barrow Hill near Rocester in Staffordshire. By her will of 12 January 1855 she bequeathed Barrow Hill and the pictures there to her niece, Louisa Jane Finch Simpson, widow of Henry Dawson (died 1849). Mrs Dawson died in 1865; her son, Captain Arthur Finch Dawson (1836–1928), inherited the house and the pictures. NG 1689 was purchased in 1900 for £4,000 through the restorer and dealer Ayerst Hooker Buttery (1868–1929), London.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Lorne Campbell, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600’, London 2014; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2008

Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian

The National Gallery (London)

15 October 2008 - 18 January 2009
2010

Jan Gossaert's Renaissance

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

6 October 2010 - 17 January 2011

The National Gallery (London)

23 February 2011 - 30 May 2011
2021

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Dürer's Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist

Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum

18 July 2021 - 24 October 2021

The National Gallery (London)

20 November 2021 - 27 February 2022
2023

The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance

The National Gallery (London)

16 March 2023 - 11 June 2023

Bibliography

1945

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, London 1945
1955

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1955
1987

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Netherlandish School, 3rd edn, London 1987
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2014

L. Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600, 2 vols, London 2014

Frame

This is a sixteenth century Flemish box frame. It is crafted from Antwerp brown oak, a reclaimed oak with a medium golden-brown colour. The complex outer moulding is topped with a fillet. A curved section with an edge roll leads to narrow frieze, before a hollow. The moulding steps to meet an astragal on a wide frieze. The sight moulding has a grooved edge roll. The frame was acquired by the Gallery in 2023.

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

More works by Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

(Showing 6 of 8 works)

A Man holding a Glove

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

A bearded man gazes out intently from this painting. We don't know who the sitter is, but the cut of his beard and the fashion of his hat and clothes suggest a date towards 1530. The fact that both his doublet and gown are lined with fur probably indicates that the portrait was painted during the...

Not on display

A Young Princess (Dorothea of Denmark?)

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

A young girl, her clothes sewn with hundreds of pearls, gazes out at us. She seems to be playing with a golden object made of concentric rings. This is an armillary sphere, a celestial globe showing the movement of heavenly bodies. Its interlocking circles are echoed in the decoration of her clot...

Not on display

Adam and Eve

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

Adam, wearing an apron of leaves, and Eve, still naked, stand between the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Adam has just tasted the apple that Eve holds, while the serpent watches from above. In the background is the Garden of Eden with the richly decorated Fountain of Lif...

Not on display

Man with a Rosary

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

A dark-haired man gazes to his right in a picture that must once have formed the right wing of a diptych or triptych (a painting made up of two or three parts respectively). He has not joined his hands in prayer, but his right is placed on his heart and he holds a rosary: he is clearly at his dev...

Not on display

The Adoration of the Kings

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

This large altarpiece is crammed with peasants, animals, angels and richly dressed kings and courtiers, come to worship the infant Christ, who sits on his mother’s lap in a palatial but ruined building.Jean Gossart has signed the painting on the hat of Balthasar, the king on the left, and on the...

Not on display

The Virgin and Child

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

In this small arched painting, the Virgin Mary is seated on a grey stone bench surrounded by a wooden frame. She wears a red mantle and uses both hands to gently restrain the naked Christ Child as he leaps forward with his arms outstretched.Once thought to be by a follower or even a late copy aft...

Not on display

The Adoration of the Kings

Circle of Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

Not on display

The Magdalen

Follower of Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)

Saint Mary Magdalene is identifiable here by her halo and her emblem – the pot of ointment with which she anointed Christ’s feet. The pot seems to show scenes from classical mythology. On the lid, one woman carries another through water – perhaps the goddess Diana helping her mother across the st...

Not on display

You've viewed 6 of 8 works

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart), 'An Elderly Couple', about 1520

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

Frame

About this record

Images

More works by Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)