Collection Highlights
Search the Collection
Back to list

Results:  1

Portrait of a Nobleman
  • Date: mid 17th century
  • Object Type: Painting
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Image size: 204.5 x 135.5 cm
  • Frame size: 230 x 170 cm
  • Inv: P53
  • Location: Great Gallery
Copy and paste the URL below to share this page:
Description
Provenance
Further Reading
  • The sitter is portrayed wearing a black costume with a plain stiff collar and cuffs, typical of the conservative Spanish fashion worn by the Genoese nobility in the seventeenth century. He is depicted full length on a palatial terrace in front of a draped curtain, with the base of a column to the left and a balustrade offering a view of parkland to the right. In both composition and tonality, the painting recalls the portraiture that Van Dyck produced during his stay in Genoa in the early 1620s, which greatly inspired artists in that city. The treatment of drapery, curtain, hands and the landscape background in the Wallace Collection painting all recall the work of Van Dyck’s Genoese follower Giovanni Bernardo Carbone, who adopted Van Dyck’s stylistic techniques and compositional ideas. The picture was bought by the 4th Marquess of Hertford as a Van Dyck (portrait of ‘a Spanish Nobleman’) before 1850. It demonstrates the extent of Van Dyck’s influence on European portraiture.