Portrait of a Man with a Hat
Govaert Flinck(Kleve 1615 – 1660 Amsterdam)1641
oil on panel
91.3 x 74.5 cm
signed and dated in brown paint, lower rightcorner: “G.flinck.ft 1641”
GF-100© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of a Man with a Hat” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portrait-of-a-manwith-a-hat-2/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

In this distinguished half-length portrait, Govaert Flinck has depicted a well-Comparative Figures

dressed, elegant gentleman clasping a broad-brimmed black hat before hischest.[1] Exuding an unassuming confidence, he stands turned to the right ina three-quarter pose as he directs a steady gaze toward the viewer. Hissober, black costume is accented by a wide, white lace collar and sleevecuffs that gently fold at his wrists. He has shoulder-length brown hair, agoatee and a thick moustache that curves slightly upward. Wrinkles beneathhis eyes and a thinning hairline reveal the sitter’s middle age, while hisplump face and rotund body suggest a comfortably lived life. By rendering
the figure with flushed cheeks and slightly parted lips, Flinck achieved asense of immediacy in this otherwise reserved and formal portrait.
Flinck turned to Rembrandt van Rijn’s (1606–69) Portrait of a Man Holding
His Hat (fig 1) from ca. 1639 as the compositional model for the Leiden
Collection painting. He followed the same half-length format and similarly

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Portraitof a Man Holding His Hat, ca.
1639, oil on panel, 81.4 x 71.4 cm,
Armand Hammer Collection,
UCLA, at the Armand Hammer
Museum of Art and CulturalCenter, Los Angeles

posed his sitter looking at the viewer while holding his hat with both hands.[2]Although Flinck’s sitter is more modestly dressed than Rembrandt’s
wealthy—and likely foreign—gentleman, he also wears a lace-trimmed white
linen collar and cuffs, which Flinck suggestively rendered with controlled yetloose brushwork.[3] Flinck similarly situated his sitter against a bare plasterwall which, as in Rembrandt’s painting, has a faint crack helping to define its
position in space.[4] Subtle differences, however, exist between Rembrandt’sand Flinck’s portraits. Rembrandt’s gentleman has a slight forward thrust to
his body which, combined with the shimmering fabric of his jacket and the© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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pronounced chiaroscuro effects the master used to model his form, creates a
subtle sense of movement to the image. Flinck’s gentleman stands quite
comfortably where he is, seemingly in no hurry to change his position or to
don the wide-brimmed black hat that he holds so firmly in his hands.[5]This portrait type was popular in Amsterdam in the middle decades of theseventeenth century. Flinck repeated this compositional model in his Portraitof a Man from 1645 in Bonn, but situated the figure beneath a classicizingarch and an open, blue sky, revealed by a curtain which has been pulled
aside.[6] Gerard ter Borch (1617–81) also adapted this figure’s pose in
his Portrait of a Gentleman (fig 2) from ca. 1652–53. In this work, Ter Borch
similarly depicted a sober, sensitively rendered image of a wealthy
Amsterdam burgher turned to the right and carrying a large black hat.[7]Fig 2. Gerard ter Borch, Portrait ofa Gentleman, ca. 1652–53, oil onpanel, 28 x 23 cm, private
collection

Although none of the identities of these sitters is known, one can deducefrom their distinguished air that they all belonged to the upper echelon ofAmsterdam society.

- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
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1. See J. W. von Moltke, Govaert Flinck (1615–1660) (Amsterdam, 1965), 131, no. 108; Josua
Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation,Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 310.
2. For Rembrandt’s portrait and its relationship to GF-100, see Albert Blankert, ed., Rembrandt:
A Genius and His Impact (Exh. cat. Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria; Canberra,National Gallery of Australia) (Zwolle, 1997), 124–26, no. 12; Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus ofRembrandt Paintings, vol. 3: 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project(The Hague, 1989), 305–11, A130, particularly 310–11. Based on the compositional
similarities between the two works, the authors of the Corpus suggested that the Rembrandt
panel had been reduced at the right and bottom (prior to a 1771 sale that describes its
present dimensions), during which time the original signature was lost. The present signatureon the Rembrandt painting is believed to have been added later. Flinck’s signature isindistinctly observable in the lower right of GF-100.
3. Rembrandt’s portrait may represent a foreign aristocrat, a supposition that results from thesitter’s unusual dress, which was not reflective of contemporary Amsterdam fashion. He isdressed in a gray taffeta costume “with a pinkish-purple lustre” and golden-yellow braiding
along its seams. For Rembrandt’s sitter’s costume, see Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus ofRembrandt Paintings, vol. 3: 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project(The Hague: 1989), 305, 308–9.
4. Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 310; Albert Blankert, ed.,Rembrandt: A Genius and His Impact (Exh. cat. Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria;
Canberra, National Gallery of Australia) (Zwolle, 1997), 126.
5. The work of the Haarlem artist Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck (1600–62) also served as aprecedent to this portrait type. The standing, turned pose, foreshortened elbow, andoccasional hat motif were common compositional elements in Verspronck’s oeuvre, including
the 1641 Portrait of a Man (Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede) and the Portrait of Eduard
Wallis, from 1652 (oil on panel, 97 x 75 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). In the latter image,
Verspronck shows the sitter seated, though still holding a hat. See R. E. O. Ekkart, JohannesCornelisz. Verspronck (Haarlem, 1979).
6. Portrait of a Man, oil on canvas, 102 x 82 cm, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn. See
Joachim Wolfgang von Moltke, Govaert Flinck (1615–1660) (Amsterdam, 1965), 131, no.
310; Werner Sumowksi, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz,1983–94), 2:1038, 1132, no. 700.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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7. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. first noted the close similarities between Ter Borch’s and Flinck’sportrait types, situating both images within an Amsterdam portrait tradition. Ter Borch,however, depicted his sitter with a smaller collar with tassels, which was consistent withcontemporary fashion. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed., Gerard ter Borch (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts; Amsterdam,Rijksmuseum) (Zwolle, 2004), 100.

Provenance
Vavasour Earle, London (his sale, Christie’s, London, 31 May 1906, no. 19 [to Hughes]).
L. Biruschansky, Paris, by 1936.
[Samuel Nystad Oude Kunst B. V., The Hague, by 1968/69] (sale, Christie’s, London, 11
June 1971, no. 109 [to the J. Paul Getty Museum].
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, until 2007 (sale, Sotheby’s Amsterdam, 8 May 2007,
no. 67 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
Delft, Stedelijk Museum het Prinsenhof, “20e Oude kunst-en antiekbeurs der Vereeniging vanHandelaren in Oude Kunst in Nederland: 1948–1968,” 20 June–10 July 1968.
Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts, “Rembrandt and His Pupils: A Loan Exhibition,” 9January–23 February 1969; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 14 March–27 April 1969, 90, no.
62 [lent by Samuel Nystad Oude Kunst B.V.].
Kleve, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, “Govert Flinck: Reflecting History,” 4 October 2015–17
January 2016, no. 9 [lent by the present owner].

References
Von Moltke, Joachim Wolfgang. Govaert Flinck (1615–1660). Amsterdam, 1965, 131, no.
308.
Bruyn, Josua, and David Carter. Rembrandt and His Pupils: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of Rembrandt. [Rembrandt et ses élèves: Une
Exposition de peintures commémorant le 300e anniversaire de Rembrandt]. Exh. cat.
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario. Montreal, 1969, no.
62.
Fredericksen, Burton B. Catalogue of the Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu,1972, no. 104.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94,2:1038, 1129, no. 697.
Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, 1986, 146.
Gaskell, Ivan. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Seventeenth-Century Dutch and FlemishPainting. London: 1990, 131-32, under no. 24, fig. 1.
Jaffé, David. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los
Angeles, 1997, 43.
Blankert, Albert, ed., Rembrandt: A Genius and His Impact. Exh. cat., Melbourne National
Gallery of Victoria; Canberra, National Gallery of Australia. Zwolle, 1997–98, 124, fig. 12b.
Bruyn, Josua, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 3: 1635–1642. Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. The Hague, 1989. 3: 310–11, fig. 5.
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., ed. Gerard ter Borch. Exh. cat. Washington, National Gallery of Art;
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts. New Haven, 2004. 100, fig. 1.
Guerrero, Maria del Mar Borobia, ed. Catalogue Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. PinturaAntigua. Madrid, 2009, 133.
Van der Molen, Tom, and Valentina Vlasic. Govert Flinck – Reflecting History. Exh. cat.
Kleve, Museum Kurhaus Kleve. Kleve, 2015, 98, 131, no. 9.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of fairly thick, vertically grained and vertically oriented rectangularshaped hardwood, has no bevels.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled, and has a lightcolored priming layer along the reverse. There are four import stamps and two stencils along thereverse but no wax collection seals or panel maker’s marks.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been applied thinly andsmoothly along the upper third of the background, allowing the ground to show through and moreopaquely along the lower two-thirds of the composition, obscuring the ground. A brown underlayer
along the figure’s hair remains visible through the loosely painted curls.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers, but afew slight compositional changes are visible. The right side of the brim of the figure’s hat has© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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been shifted to the left, as has the lower portion the hat. There is no X-radiograph of the painting.
The painting is signed and dated in brown paint along the lower right corner.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2007 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood as a “hardwood with vessels” is based on analysis carriedout at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection