Portrait of a Carthusian

Portrait of a Carthusian

Portrait of a Carthusian

Artist:
Petrus Christus (Netherlandish, Baarle-Hertog (Baerle-Duc), active by 1444–died 1475/76 Bruges)
Date:
1446
Medium:
Oil on wood
Dimensions:
Overall 11 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (29.2 x 21.6 cm); painted surface 11 1/2 x 7 3/8 in. (29.2 x 18.7 cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

Christus places his sitter in the corner of a warmly illuminated room and enhances the quality of his "real" presence by the fly resting momentarily on the fictive frame. The leading painter of Bruges following Jan van Eyck's death in 1441, Christus moves beyond the flat neutral backgrounds of his predecessor's portraits. The illusionistic inscription underscores the verisimilitude of the portrait, declaring: "Petrus Christus made me in the year 1446."

Provenance

Ramon de Oms (Ramon de la Cruz), Viceroy of Majorca (in 1911); Marqués de Dos Aguas, Valencia (by 1916–at least 1924); [Sulley and Co., London, by 1926–27]; [Knoedler, London and New York, 1927; sold for $80,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1927–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 20; 1943, no. 19)

Copyright Image
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