Portrait of An Unknown Gentleman
c. 1640-60
Inscribed : A..Vandyck P/163(?)7 : oil on canvas 49 ins by 40 ins.
Collection Details
With Agnew 1895, when sold to Alexander Henderson, later 1st Lord Faringdon.
Literature
E Schaeffer, Van Dyck (Klassiker der Kunst), 1909, No. 263.
Exhibition Details
Brussels, International Exhibition, L’Art Belge au XVIIe Siècle, 1910, No. 159.
Background
Hitherto catalogued as the Portrait of a Genoese by van Dyck. The attribution to van Dyck is difficult to sustain, and it would appear rather that it was the work of a talented follower, painting not in the manner of the artist’s Italian period but of his second Flemish one. The date inscribed on the portrait may therefore be approximately correct; no reliance can be placed on the signature, which is certainly false. This opinion is endorsed by Sir Oliver Millar, who considers the van Dyck attribution to be untenable and suggests that it may have been painted in the 1640s or 1650s. It is possible that cleaning will reveal the author of this portrait, which possesses an innate strength and a certain truculence.
Heinemann suggested (letter of 6 July 1976) that the artist might be the Genoese heavily influenced by van Dyck, Giovanni Carbone (1614–83).
The Trustees of the Faringdon Collection 24.
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