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Pieter Quast, 'A Standing Man', probably 1630-5

Key facts
Full title A Standing Man
Artist Pieter Quast
Artist dates 1605/6 - 1647
Date made probably 1630-5
Medium and support oil on wood
Dimensions 35 × 23.5 cm
Inscription summary Signed
Acquisition credit Presented by the Misses Rachel F. and Jean I. Alexander; entered the Collection, 1972
Inventory number NG6410
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
A Standing Man
Pieter Quast

Bathed in a bright spotlight, a man stands alone in front of a fairly plain background. His clothes – he is wearing boots with spurs, a short cape and a wide brimmed hat with an ostrich feather – suggest that he is a soldier.

Quast made a number of small full-length portraits of sitters in similar poses to the one depicted here. However, it is not known whether this painting is a portrait or a generic image of an anonymous soldier that can be related to the popular guardroom scenes of the time.

This image was painted over part of another painting: we can see the ghostly shapes of a figure on horseback, moving from right to left, accompanied by another figure walking next to the horse. Quast, who also painted history subjects, probably reused and cut down a panel that was in his studio.

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More paintings by Pieter Quast

A Man and a Woman in a Stableyard
A Man and a Woman in a Stableyard
Pieter Quast
An officer stands in a stable yard resting his foot on top of a turned over washtub, while a peasant kneels to adjust his spur. This task was normally part of a page’s duties, as seen in guardroom scenes of the time, but in several of Pieter Quast’s paintings officers humiliate peasants by forcin...
Not on display