Portrait of a Man

Inscription: Inscribed (top): M de la Nove

Walter Gay, Paris; Michael Friedsam, New York (by 1927–d. 1931)

New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Loan Exhibition of French Primitives and Objects of Art," October 17–November 12, 1927, no. 60 (as "Portrait of Monsieur de la Nove," by Corneille de Lyon, lent by Colonel M. Friedsam).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.

Harriet Monroe. "Exhibit of Thirty Old Masters." Chicago Sunday Tribune (January 11, 1914), p. 56, mentions it among a group of old master paintings exhibited by Gimpel and Wildenstein at O'Brien's gallery in Chicago, as one of "two small, exquisite heads—a man and a woman—in the manner of Clouet, by Corneille de Lyon".

Louis Réau. "Une exposition de primitifs français à New-York." La Renaissance 10 (October 1927), ill. p. 448, erroneously refers to it as "Portrait of Antoine de Bourbon, roi de Navarre".

Louis Réau in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 176, ascribes it to Corneille and based on the inscription identifies the sitter as "Monsieur de la Nove"; notes that it came from "the collection of the American painter, Walter Gay of Paris".

E. M. Sperling. Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Flemish Primitives. Exh. cat., F. Kleinberger Galleries, Inc., New York. New York, 1929, p. 146, no. 60, ill., as "Portrait of Monsieur de la Nove" by Corneille de Lyon.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 20.

Charles Sterling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. Vol. 1, XV–XVIII Centuries. Cambridge, Mass., 1955, p. 39, ill., notes that the portrait cannot represent François de la Noue (1531–91), known as Bras de Fer, as the features do not correspond to existing chalk portraits of this individual; ascribes it to the workshop of Corneille, about 1555–60, based on the costume and style.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 355, ill.

Anne Dubois de Groër. Corneille de La Haye dit Corneille de Lyon. Paris, 1996, p. 212, no. 125, ill., observes that the sitter bears little resemblance to François de la Noue as represented in confirmed portraits; dates it about 1560 and considers the hesitant hand responsible for the eyebrows, eyes and nose certainly not that of Corneille; finds it characteristic of the late productions of his workshop: few shadows, with a more consistent use of "lights".