Possibly by Pieter Franchoijs, 'Portrait of Lucas Fayd'herbe (?)', about 1640-50

We can sense the confidence and energy of the man in this portrait. He is positioned slightly higher than the viewer, so we have to look up at him; he returns our gaze with a direct, rather aloof look in his eyes.

His pose seems to reflect his vitality and a sense of self-belief: there is a sureness and dynamism in the casual lean of his body, the turn of his head, his exposed forearm and the strong angles created by the bend of his elbows. This man doesn‘t bother with fussy sartorial details – an untied ribbon dangles from one of his cuffs. The pose also gives the painting a strong visual structure based on two opposing diagonals. One is formed by the parallel lines of his forearms, the other by the line of his head and torso.

The sitter has been identified as Lucas Fayd’herbe (1617–1697). He was a successful sculptor and architect who lived and worked in Mechelen and was probably one of Rubens’s last pupils. There is no documentary proof for this identification, but the sitter bears a very strong resemblance to an engraved portrait of Fayd’herbe by Gonzales Coques. It was published in 1661 in Het Gulden Cabinet, a book by Cornelis de Bie which contained portraits and biographies of ‘the Most Famous Painters, Architects, Sculptors and Engravers of This Century’. Our painting was probably made in the 1640s, a date indicated by the costume, and it shows a somewhat younger man. But the line of the nose, the shape of the lips and chin and the hairline are consistent in both our painting and the Het Gulden Cabinet print. There is another portrait of Fayd’herbe by Coques in the National Gallery’s collection, which also shows him at a later age, probably in his forties.

There is no signature on the picture, so we can’t be sure who made it. The strongest candidate is Pieter Franchoijs, a successful portrait and figure painter who was a cousin of Fayd’herbe. He had also been a pupil of Rubens and he too lived and worked in Mechelen.