Portrait of a Man, Joos van Cleve (workshop of), c. 1520 - c. 1530 – (Joos Van Cleve) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Joos Van Cleve

Date: 1530

Size: 46 x 43 cm

Technique: Oil On Panel

A young man shown half-length against a light blue background is wearing a black gown lined with spotted lynx fur over a black jerkin with a horizontal neckline on top of a red doublet with a standing collar and a white pleated shirt with smockwork edges. The sleeves of the gown are slashed to reveal the red sleeves of his doublet. On his head he has a serrated bonnet or cap with a broad serrated brim made from two pieces of cloth. This type of headgear, known as a Milan bonnet, may have been reserved for the nobility and came into fashion around 1520.10 The standing collar of the doublet, which fastened at the back, became increasingly higher in this period, and was left open at the neck, with the corners bent outwards to display the decorated shirt collar.11 This combination of a Milan bonnet, gown, jerkin and doublet was worn around 1520-30.12 Nothing is known about the sitter’s identity. In 1801, shortly after arriving in the Nationale Konst-Gallerij in The Hague from Paleis Het Loo, it was recorded as being a portrait of Emperor Maximilian I by Hans Holbein. In the Rijksmuseum collection catalogue of 1887, Bredius attributed it to the Master of the Death of the Virgin, who had been identified as Joos van Cleve in 1884. The transparently modelled skin with the almost transparent shadows is typical of Van Cleve and his workshop. The background, fading from sky blue to a bluish white from top to bottom, is also characteristic of the workshop. The background is for example comparable to that in Joos van Cleve’s Self-Portrait of 1519 in Madrid.13 The topmost layers of glaze of the present painting seem to be missing here and there, robbing the picture of the subtle finishing touch that is so characteristic of Joos van Cleve. The X-radiographs show that the brushwork is not as delicate as one would expect from the master himself. However, since there are several similarities, such as the modelling of the face, to his autograph portraits, like the pair in Florence (fig. a), this painting must be attributed to a workshop assistant. This portrait was probably one of a group of 30 paintings which Stadholder-King William III (1650-1702) transferred from English palaces to his Het Loo hunting palace in 1702. After he died that same year, the English crown demanded the return of these works, but this was never done, and they remained the property of William’s heir, Johan Willem Friso van Nassau-Dietz (1687-1711).14 Johan Willem Friso’s wax seal is on the back of seven of these paintings, including this one, which is the only one to have a second seal on the back, that of William and his wife Mary (1662-94).15 This portrait may be identical with the painting described in 1697 and 1700 in inventories of the English court as a work by Hans Holbein: ‘Man ½ Length with 2 hands’. The 1757 inventory of Paleis Het Loo lists a ‘bust by Holbein’, which may be the same painting, with the measurements of 2 x 1.5 feet.16 The support has been cut down at both top and bottom. If the inventory listings do indeed refer to this painting it is likely that the bottom was sawn off between 1700 and 1757, which could have removed the hands mentioned in the 1688-1700 inventories. The top was then enlarged, possibly to make the panel fit back into its original frame.17 When a new piece was added at the top, it is possible that part of the top of the original support was removed so as to join the two wooden parts together. In 1925, Baldass stated that pieces had been added to the top, bottom and left side, and gave the height of the painting as 59.2 cm, which is 13.5 cm more than the present measurement.18 Based on the information in the museum files, the assumed piece added at the top must have been removed before 1951, when the painting was given on loan to the Mauritshuis.19 Comparison of the present painting with the pair of portraits by Joos van Cleve in Florence (fig. a) also suggests that it originally showed the hands and possibly had a pendant. (Vanessa Hoogland/Micha Leeflang)