 |
| Bearded Man with a Velvet Cap |
Artist:Govert Flinck (Dutch, Cleve 1615–1660 Amsterdam)
Date:1645
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:23 3/4 x 20 5/8 in. (60.3 x 52.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900
Accession Number:25.110.27
Surely a live model served for this dashing character in romantic costume and a brilliantly brushed beard. The picture is a tronie (meaning face or expression), in which both the subject and technique were meant to appeal to art lovers. Flinck painted this picture over his own finished formal portrait of a woman, thus saving the wood panel from a commission that somehow went awry.
Catalogue Entry
This tronie, an imaginary portrait based on a live model, would be recognized as typical of Flinck in the 1640s even if the panel were not signed and dated. X-radiographs show that Flick painted his dashing if no longer youthful character over a female portrait, which itself seems consistent with the artist's work in the early to mid-1640s.
Originally the colors of the costume were set off against a deep olive background, but this has darkened almost to black with age. The gold pendant is a type often employed by Rembrandt and artists in his circle to suggest antiquity or the exotic Middle East.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the picture is the wispy white beard, which was something of a signature motif for Flinck, especially in the 1640s. Even in more carefully descriptive pictures such as The Apostle Paul, of about 1636 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), Flinck lends a rhythmic flair to flowing facial hair. Here, however, the effect is much more artificial. The manner of execution is a clear instance of how far Flinck had distanced himself from his teacher Rembrandt by the time he was thirty and had been out of the master's studio for about eight years.
The most similar works by Flinck in type and style include the Bearded Old Man with Beret and Gold Chain (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) and the so-called Portrait of a Rabbi (formerly Guterman collection, New York), both of about 1642. A good number of similar figures were depicted in a generally comparable style by the Amsterdam artist Salomon Koninck (1609–1656) during the 1640s.
[2013; adapted from Liedtke 2007]
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
Comments
Post a Comment