Portrait of a Man

The Artist: For a biography of Jan Gossart, see Maryan W. Ainsworth, "Jan Gossart (ca. 1478–1532) and His Circle." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.

The Painting: In this tightly cropped composition, the sitter is turned to the left in a three-quarter view against a dark background. Over his white shirt, the man wears a fur-trimmed garment and a purplish-blue robe with a rich brown damask sleeve. A hatpin with the letters “IM” is affixed to the man’s beret. In his right hand, he holds a scroll with the Latin inscription “...omrpses/J[o]annes…/malbodius… pingeba[t]” (Joannes Malbodius painted [this]). This form of the artist’s name appeared for the first time in his Neptune and Amphitrite of 1516 (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; Ainsworth 2010, pp. 217–19).

The sitter of this portrait, which once belonged to the famous eighteenth-century British painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), remains unknown. Some have suggested that the letters “IM” of the hat pin stand for the artist’s name in Latin, Joannes Malodius, better known as Jan Gossart or Jan Mabuse, offering the possibility of a self-portrait (Burroughs and Weale 1932). However, the physiognomy of the sitter does not compare well with other proposed portraits of Gossart, such as the engraving by Johannes Wierix for Domenicus Lampsonius’s Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies (Portraits of Some Celebrated Artists of the Low Countries) of 1572 (see fig. 1 above). Max J. Friedländer (1906, p. 34) proposed that the “IM” stands for “Iesus Maria,” signifying the man’s piety. Alternatively, the Roman capitals may indicate that the sitter is a humanist and could denote the first letters of a personal motto or device.[1] Eric Larsen (1960, pp. 88–89) noted that deacons of professional guilds are known to have worn such pins, and this may identify the métier of the man, if not his name.

The Attribution and Date: Jan Gossart was a splendid and much sought-after portrait painter, as his many extant examples attest.[2] Jan’s earlier works in particular reveal his admiration for two predecessors who achieved great fame as portraitists in Bruges, namely Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling. Like them, Gossart portrayed his sitters as dignified yet aloof, not overly haughty, but always highly refined and elegant. From Van Eyck and Memling, Jan also assimilated his portrait formula—the three-quarter view of his sitters, often facing left, and the placement of their hands in the lower left or right corner of the composition (for Memling, see 14.40.626–27, 1975.1.112, 14.40.648). One thinks immediately of Van Eyck’s 1432 Portrait of a Man (Léal Souvenir) in the National Gallery, London (fig. 2; Bauman 1986, p. 42) who also holds a scroll, but with illegible script.

The combination of naturalistic observation and painterly virtuosity, so admired by the contemporaries of Van Eyck and Memling, also was achieved in Gossart’s best independent portraits. As with Memling’s portraits, for example the portrait of Tommaso Portinari 14.40.626, Gossart paid careful attention to the subtle modeling of the flesh tones, the stubble of the beard, the cleft chin, and the individually painted hairs of the eyebrows. However, Gossart’s far more sculptural treatment of the bony structure of the face separates his work from that of Memling, who opted for a softer, more generalized approach. The x-radiograph of Gossart’s painting shows how the flesh tones have been rather densely worked up, and the infrared reflectography indicates—as was usual for Gossart’s working method—minimal underdrawing at the contours of the hat and head, the features of the face, and in the man’s right hand (see forthcoming Technical Notes and figs. 3, 4). The portrait has sometimes been dated to around 1516 (Herzog 1968, pp. 238–39), but most scholars assign a slightly later date in the early 1520s (see Refs.). Dendrochronology supports the later dating (Klein 2010, p. 432). It thus falls in line with Gossart’s routine and less ambitious portraiture of the early1520s, such as the Portrait of a Man (Self-Portrait?) in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, or the Portrait of a Man in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Ainsworth 2010, pp. 250–53; figs. 5, 6).

Maryan W. Ainsworth 2020, adapted and updated from Ainsworth 2010

[1] Suggested by Jos Kodeweij in an email of September 5, 2009 to the author.
[2] See Ainsworth 2010, pp. 18–20, and nos. 36–63, pp. 236–302.

Forthcoming

Inscription: Signed: (on scroll) . . . omrpses / J[o]annes . . . / malbodius . . . / pingeba[t]; (on hat ornament) IM [monogram]

Sir Joshua Reynolds, London (until d. 1792; his estate sale, Christie's, London, March 16, 1795, no. 41, as "The Portrait of John Duke of Flanders," by J. Mabeuse, for £12.12 to Bryan); [Michael Bryan, London, 1795; his sale, Bryan's Gallery, London, April 27, 1795, no. 47, as "The Portrait of the Painter," by J. de Mabeuse]; Edward Coxe, London (until 1807; his sale, Peter Coxe, London, April 25, 1807, no. 33, as "His own Portrait," by J. de Mabuse, for £7.17 to Panné); [Philippe Panné, London, from 1807]; comte de Quincey (until 1904; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1904, no. 35, as "Portrait présumé de l'artiste," by Mabuse, for Fr 28,000 to Kleinberger); [Kleinberger, Paris, from 1904]; Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin (by 1906–d. 1908; his estate, 1908–17; his estate sale, Cassirer & Helbing, Berlin, December 4, 1917, no. 91, as "Bildnis eines Mannes," for Mk. 63,000); Camillo Castiglioni, Vienna (until 1926; his sale, Frederik Müller, Amsterdam, July 13–15, 1926, no. 21, ?to Kleinberger); [Kleinberger, Paris and New York, 1926, sold for $17,500 to Friedsam]; Michael Friedsam, New York (1926–d. 1931)

Palais des Beaux-Arts Charleroi. "Les arts anciens du Hainaut," 1911, no. 16 (as "Portrait du peintre" by Gossaert, lent by Mme von Kaufmann).

Berlin. Akademie der Künste. "Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst," 1914, no. 50 (as "Bildnis eines Mannes," by Gossaert, lent by Frau von Kaufmann).

New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Flemish Primitives," 1929, no. 74 (as a Self-Portrait by Mabuse, lent by Michael Friedsam).

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

Rotterdam. Museum Boymans-van Beuningen. "Jean Gossaert dit Mabuse," May 15–June 27, 1965, no. 4.

Bruges. Groeninge Museum. "Jean Gossaert dit Mabuse," July 10–August 31, 1965, no. 4.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 22, 1998–February 21, 1999, no. 39.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance," October 6, 2010–January 17, 2011, no. 44.

London. National Gallery. "Jan Gossaert's Renaissance," February 23–May 30, 2011, no. 44.

Max J. Friedländer. "De Verzameling von Kaufmann te Berlijn." Onze Kunst 10 (July–December 1906), p. 34, considers it unlikely to be a self-portrait and suggests that the initials on the hat could stand for "Jesus Maria".

Ernst Weisz. Jan Gossart gen. Mabuse: Sein Leben und Seine Werke. Parchim i. M., Germany, 1913, pp. 84–85, 115 n. 66, 117, pl. 18, fig. 54, calls it "Herrenporträt" and dates it about 1520–25; considers the monogram J.M. on the hat likely to stand for "Jesus Maria"; compares the treatment of the hand holding an inscribed document with that of Jan van Eyck's "Tymotheos" in the National Gallery, London.

Max J. Friedländer. Von Eyck bis Bruegel: Studien zur Geschichte der Niederländischen Malerei. Berlin, 1916, p. 187.

T[ancred]. B[orenius]. "Monthly Chronicle: The Kaufmann Sale." Burlington Magazine 32 (January 1918), p. 36, no. 91.

Achille Ségard. Jean Gossart dit Mabuse. Brussels, 1924, pp. 178, no. 11, ill. opp. p. 136, calls it Portrait of a Man.

Max J. Friedländer in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 121, as a self-portrait.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 8, Jan Gossart Bernart van Orley. Berlin, 1930, p. 161, no. 63, pl. 47, as Portrait of a Man.

Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), pp. 26–28, ill., identify it tentatively as a self-portrait; observe that the type of the signature indicates that the painting dates after 1516.

"Friedsam Bequest to be Exhibited Next November." Art News 30 (January 2, 1932), p. 13, prints Bryson Burroughs's survey of the Friedsam paintings.

"Sir Joshua Reynolds' Collection of Pictures—III." Burlington Magazine 87 (November 1945), p. 263, lists it with works from the Reynolds sale, giving buyer and price information.

Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings. New York, 1947, pp. 141–42, ill., comment that "it has not the look of a self-portrait," suggesting, nevertheless, that the monogram on the hat probably stands for "Ioannes Malbodius".

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 43.

Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, pp. 88–89, 130, fig. 32, doubts it is a self-portrait; suggests that the monogram on the sitter's hat may indicate that he was guild doyen for the year, having drawn the winning wax ball marked with J M for "Jesus Maria" from the traditional guild lottery.

H. Pauwels, H. R. Hoetink, and S. Herzog. Jean Gossaert dit Mabuse. Exh. cat., Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. [Bruges], [1965], pp. 65–66, no. 4, ill., states that the sitter bears no resemblance to the portraits of Gossart engraved by Hondius, Wiericz and Galle, all of which derive from the same prototype; finds it credible that the initials on the hat might relate to guild status as explained in Ref. Larsen 1960.

Sadja Jacob Herzog. "Jan Gossart, called Mabuse (ca. 1478–1532): A Study of his Chronology with a Catalogue of his Works." PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1968, vol. 2, pp. 238–39, no. 14; vol. 3, fig. 18, based on the vertical format, crowded subject, expressionless face, and dark background, places this portrait with Gossaert's early portraits, before about 1516; the latinized signature, however, suggests to her that the portrait cannot date much earlier than 1516.

Lorne Campbell. Unpublished text for MMA Bulletin. 1981, tentatively dates this portrait to the 1520s; believes the letters on the sitter's hat are likely to stand for "Iesus Maria" and to be a mark of the sitter's piety.

Guy Bauman. "Early Flemish Portraits, 1425–1525." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 43 (Spring 1986), pp. 42, 48, ill. (color), places it during the first half of the 1520's and believes the letters on the hat ornament are most likely an abbreviation for "the common Christian invocation 'Ihesus Maria'"; sees the portrait as a conscious revival of Eyckian models such as Jan's "Tymotheos" of 1432 [National Gallery, London].

Introduction by Walter A. Liedtke in Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992, pp. 24, 338, no. 255, ill.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 267, ill.

Véronique Sintobin in From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 69, 74, 190–91, no. 39, ill. (color) , dates it 1520–25.

Ariane Mensger. Jan Gossaert: Die niederländische Kunst zu Beginn der Neuzeit. Berlin, 2002, p. 160, fig. 88.

Isabelle Meunier-Fleury and Sonia Miralles Bou in La naissance des genres: La peinture des anciens Pays-Bas (avant 1620) au Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève. Ed. Frédéric Elsig. Paris, 2005, p. 128, fig. 3, under no. 34.

Maryan W. Ainsworth in Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 9, 69–70, 81, 86 n. 1, 252, 256–58, 268, no. 44, ill. (color) and fig. 6G (color detail).

Peter Klein in Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 432, based on dendrochronological analysis, gives the earliest possible felling date for the tree from which the panel was made as 1510, and the estimated felling date as 1516.