Netherlandish, 'A Man', about 1550

This bearded man was once thought to be a portrait of the painter Anthonis Mor. The painting was given to the British Museum by Andrew Gifford, assistant librarian there, and a label on the back is inscribed: [Sr] Anthony More/Painter given/Dr Gifford 1758. It was transferred with other paintings to the National Portrait Gallery in 1880; the National Gallery’s director, Frederic Burton, applied to have four of the works, including this portrait, transferred to Trafalgar Square.

The artist was believed to have been knighted during his visit to England in 1554-5 and was therefore called Sir Anthony More or Sir Antonio Moro. However, there is no resemblance to Mor’s Self Portrait of 1558 (Uffizi, Florence) and no real clue as to the sitter’s identity. His clothes, particularly his collar, are quite like those worn by Sir Thomas Gresham in a portrait of 1544 (Mercers' Company, London) and Gerlach Fliche’s self portrait of 1554 (London, National Portrait Gallery). A date of around 1550 fits with the dendrochronological evidence.

The portrait is much overpainted, but an X-ray image gives a better idea of its quality, and there are distinct affinities with Mor’s style. However, the panel itself is so badly constructed that it is unlikely to have come from a panel-maker in any of the principal centres in the Low Countries, where Mor worked. Perhaps the picture was painted in England by an artist strongly influenced by Netherlandish portraiture, and by the work of Mor in particular.