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© 2024 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, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur
K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archivedDecember 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

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

Comparative Figures[1]

elegant gentleman clasping a broad-brimmed black hat before his chest. Exuding an
unassuming confidence, he stands turned to the right in a three-quarter pose as hedirects a steady gaze toward the viewer. His sober, black costume is accented by awide, white lace collar and sleeve cuffs that gently fold at his wrists. He has shoulderlength brown hair, a goatee and a thick moustache that curves slightly upward.
Wrinkles beneath his eyes and a thinning hairline reveal the sitter’s middle age, while
his plump face and rotund body suggest a comfortably lived life. By rendering thefigure with flushed cheeks and slightly parted lips, Flinck achieved a sense ofimmediacy 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 posed his sitter looking at theFig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait ofa Man Holding His Hat, ca. 1639, oilon panel, 81.4 x 71.4 cm, ArmandHammer Collection, UCLA, at theArmand Hammer Museum of Art andCultural Center, Los Angeles

viewer while holding his hat with both hands.[2] Although Flinck’s sitter is moremodestly dressed than Rembrandt’s wealthy—and likely foreign—gentleman, he alsowears a lace-trimmed white linen collar and cuffs, which Flinck suggestively renderedwith controlled yet loose brushwork.[3] Flinck similarly situated his sitter against abare plaster wall which, as in Rembrandt’s painting, has a faint crack helping todefine 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 bodywhich, combined with the shimmering fabric of his jacket and the pronounced
chiaroscuro effects the master used to model his form, creates a subtle sense ofmovement 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

Fig 2. Gerard ter Borch, Portrait of a
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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that he holds so firmly in his hands.[5]Gentleman, ca. 1652–53, oil on panel,
28 x 23 cm, private collection

This portrait type was popular in Amsterdam in the middle decades of theseventeenth century. Flinck repeated this compositional model in his Portrait of aMan from 1645 in Bonn, but situated the figure beneath a classicizing arch and anopen, 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) fromca. 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 blackhat.[7] Although none of the identities of these sitters is known, one can deduce fromtheir distinguished air that they all belonged to the upper echelon of Amsterdam
society.

- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
Page 4 of 7Endnotes
1. See J. W. von Moltke, Govaert Flinck (1615–1660) (Amsterdam, 1965), 131, no. 108; Josua Bruyn etal., 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 Geniusand His Impact (Exh. cat. Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria; Canberra, National Gallery ofAustralia) (Zwolle, 1997), 124–26, no. 12; Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt 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 theCorpus 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
signature on 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 the sitter’sunusual dress, which was not reflective of contemporary Amsterdam fashion. He is dressed in a graytaffeta 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 of Rembrandt 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 andHis 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 a precedent tothis portrait type. The standing, turned pose, foreshortened elbow, and occasional hat motif werecommon 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 75cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). In the latter image, Verspronck shows the sitter seated, though still
holding a hat. See R. E. O. Ekkart, Johannes Cornelisz. 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.
7. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. first noted the close similarities between Ter Borch’s and Flinck’s portrait types,
situating both images within an Amsterdam portrait tradition. Ter Borch, however, depicted his sitterwith a smaller collar with tassels, which was consistent with contemporary fashion. See Arthur K.
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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,” 9 January–23
February 1969; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 14 March–27 April 1969, 90, no. 62 [lent by SamuelNystad 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
Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of Rembrandt. [Rembrandt et ses élèves: Une Exposition depeintures commémorant le 300e anniversaire de Rembrandt]. Exh. cat. Montreal, Montreal Museum ofFine 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,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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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 Flemish Painting.
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 ofVictoria; 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. Pintura Antigua. Madrid,2009, 133.
Van der Molen, Tom, and Valentina Vlasic. Govert Flinck – Reflecting History. Exh. cat. Kleve, MuseumKurhaus Kleve. Kleve, 2015, 98, 131, no. 9.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of fairly thick, vertically grained and vertically oriented rectangular-shaped
hardwood, has no bevels.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled, and has a light-colored priming layer along
the reverse. There are four import stamps and two stencils along the reverse but no wax collection seals orpanel maker’s marks.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been applied thinly and smoothly
along the upper third of the background, allowing the ground to show through and more opaquely along thelower two-thirds of the composition, obscuring the ground. A brown underlayer along the figure’s hairremains visible through the loosely painted curls.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers, but a few slightcompositional changes are visible. The right side of the brim of the figure’s hat has 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 goodstate of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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

© 2024 The Leiden Collection