Netherlandish School

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Netherlandish School

16th century

Portrait of a Man in a Cap with Ear Flaps. Verso (by a later hand): Image traced through in outline in graphite

Black chalk, on laid paper.

9 3/8 x 6 1/6 inches (237 x 154 mm)

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

I, 225b

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Notes:

Watermark: none.
The fresh and direct appearance of this striking drawing suggests it was made after a live model. The artist focused on capturing the likeness of the face and indicated the clothing only cursorily. As the eighteenth-century inscription shows, the work was long considered a self-portrait by the great Hubert van Eyck. The drawing style and the sitter's clothing, however, place the drawing a century later, in the early sixteenth century. The draftsman may have been Jan Mostaert, one of the first documented artists in Haarlem. As is the case with Memling, no drawings can be attributed to Mostaert with certainty. The tentative attribution here is based on comparison with Mostaert's similar facial types and with the underdrawings in his paintings. -- Exhibition Label, from "Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece"

Inscription:

Inscribed at lower left, in brown ink, "I.V.Eyck". On verso, at lower left, in Goll van Franckenstein's hand, in brown ink, his number "(N.2183)" with repetition (partially trimmed), in another brown ink, in the same hand that also copied it on verso of I, 225a.

Provenance:

Jan Pietersz. Zoomer (1641-1724), according to Sir John Charles Robinson (no mark; see Lugt 1511); Johan van der Marck Aegzn. (no mark; see Lugt 3001); his sale, Amsterdam, Hendrik de Winter & Jan Yver, 29 November 1773, lot 1856 (portrait of Hubrecht van Eyck; with lot 1855 to Greebe for Fl.5); Jonkheer Johann Goll van Franckenstein the Elder (1722-1785; see Lugt 2987); Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein the Younger (1756-1821); Jonkeer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832); his sale, Amsterdam, De Vries ... Roos, 1 July 1833, Album AA, lot 11 ("Hubert en Jan van Eyck, 2 stuks, ao. ["o" superscript, directly over the period]. Met zw. krÿt, door henzelvan"; to Gruyter for Fl 12.25); probably Miss James, London; her sale, Christie's, 23 June 1891, lot 267 (School of Van Eyck, "Portrait of a Man"; to Robinson with lot 268 [I, 225a], for £8.8.0); Sir John Charles Robinson (Lugt 1433); his sale ("Well-known Amateur"), Christie's, 12-14 May 1902, lot 132 ("Eyck, Hubert van, Ascribed to. His Own Portrait - black chalk. From the J.P. Zoomer Collection. Exhibited at the Guildhall, 1895"); Charles Fairfax Murray (ascribed to Van Eyck in his Inventory); Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.

Associated names:

Anonymous, Flemish School, 16th cent., Formerly attributed to.
Zoomer, Jan Pietersz, 1641-1724, former owner.
Aegzn, Johan van der Marck, former owner.
Winter, Hendrik de, former owner.
Yver, Jan, former owner.
Goll van Franckenstein, J. (Johann), 1722-1785, former owner.
Goll van Franckenstein, Johan, 1756-1821, former owner.
Goll van Franckenstein, Pieter Hendrik, 1787-1832, former owner.
Gruyter, former owner.
James, Miss, -approximately 1891, former owner.
Robinson, J. C. (John Charles), Sir, 1824-1913, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography:

Stampfle, Felice, with the assistance of Ruth S. Kraemer and Jane Shoaf Turner. Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1991, p. 9, no. 11, repr.

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