© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in Profile (Previously “Portrait of a Jew in Profile”)
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Portrait of a Man in Profile (Previously“Portrait of a Jew in Profile”)

ca. 1637
oil on panel
20 x 14.1 cm
RR-121Attributed to Govaert Flinck(Kleve 1615 – 1660 Amsterdam)

How to cite
DeWitt, David. “Portrait of a Man in Profile (Previously “Portrait of a Jew in Profile”)” (2017). In The LeidenCollection

Catalogue,2nded.

EditedbyArthur

K.

WheelockJr.

NewYork,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portrait-of-a-jew-in-profile/ (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 narrative
occurs.

This small panel bears the bust of a young bearded man turned to the left,

Comparative Figures

his profile emphatically set off by his shoulder-length curly hair. Only a sliverof the right eyebrow and an indication of the right eyelid are visible,
suggesting a slight turn toward the viewer. The torso is ensconced in abrown garment, which blends into the color of the background, and so theviewer’s eye comes to rest on the man’s face, lit from the upper left. The
expression of this smooth visage—the closed mouth and the half-closed eyesstaring unfocused into the distance—suggests the serious and internalized
gaze of the model.
The man’s appearance—in particular the dark brown hair, short beard, andlightly curved eyebrows—points to the description of Jesus appearing inSamuel van Hoogstraten’s treatise on painting, published in 1678:
His hair is of the color of the ripe hazelnut, parted on the top in themanner of the Nazarites, and falling straight down to the ears, but curling

Fig 1. Hans Burgmair, Lentulus
Letter with Jesus in Profile, 1512,
woodcut, 254 × 169 mm,
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung,
Munich, inv. 67874D

further below, with blond highlights and fanning off his shoulders. He has© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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a fair forehead and no wrinkles or marks on his face, his cheeks are
tinged with pink . . . his beard is large and full but not long, and parted in
the middle. His glance shows simplicity adorned with maturity, his eyes
are clear and commanding, never apt to laugh.[1]Van Hoogstraten (1627–78) drew his description from the so-called Lentulus
Letter, which was then thought to provide a contemporary description ofJesus’s physical appearance.[2] Indeed, a group of twelve bust-length oil
studies of the head of Jesus painted by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) andhis pupils from the late 1640s to the mid-1650s seems to follow thedescription in this letter. As Lloyd DeWitt has demonstrated, theserepresentations of what was thought to be an eyewitness description formed

Fig 2. Govaert Flinck, The
Lamentation, 1637, oil on canvas,
90.1 x 71.9 cm, signed, National
Museum of Western Art, Tokyo,
inv. P.2006-001

a radical break with the existing iconographic tradition.[3] Instead of following
the tradition of icon painting, Rembrandt and his pupils “brought to life” animage of Jesus by portraying him with his head slightly turned or inclined. In
these works, the facial expression is “turned inward,” and the figure isrendered in loose, painterly brushwork. That these artists based their images
on living models is confirmed by contemporary sources. Rembrandt’s own
inventoryof1656

includes,alongside

twoChristus

tronievanRembrandt (“head of Christ by Rembrandt”), a Christus tronie naar het leven(“ head of Christ from life”) that must be connected to this group of headstudies.[4] The poet Jan Vos (1612–67), furthermore, indicates thatRembrandt and his pupils used Jewish models in their depictions of Jesus. InFig 3. Govaert Flinck, Isaac
Blessing Jacob, c. 1635, oil oncanvas, 124 x 151 cm, signed,
Museum het Catharijneconvent,Utrecht, on loan from the InstituutCollectie Nederland, The Hague,inv. NK 2487

writing about a painting by Govaert Flinck (1615–60), the author explainswith a sarcastic (and anti-Semitic) tone why Jesus is shown with a closed
mouth: “because the model was a Jew.”[5]The present painting relates closely to this group of head studies, but it
diverges from them in one critical aspect: it is the only one that represents
the head of Jesus in profile. One of the few precedents for this pose is awoodcut of 1512 by Hans Burgmaier (fig 1), which accompanied thepublication of the Lentulus Letter. Burgmaier’s print depicts a profile imageof Jesus in a circle, thereby alluding to portraits of rulers from antiquity andthe Renaissance in which the profile pose emphasized the status andcharacter of the sitter.[6]According to dendrochronological analysis, the panel for this head study
could have been available for painting as early as 1625, which opens thepossibility that this work was executed at an earlier date than were the headsof Jesus created in the Rembrandt workshop in the late 1640s.[7] Indeed, the© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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handling of the figure relates more closely to the works that Rembrandt andhis students created in the 1630s than in the 1640s. The painting’sexecution most closely resembles Govaert Flinck’s manner of painting
figures when he was working in the workshop of Hendrick van Uylenburgh(1584/89–ca. 1660) during the late 1630s. There, under the inspiration ofRembrandt’s powerful effects of chiaroscuro, as well as that master’s muted
palette and heightened observation of emotion, Flinck gradually moved awayfrom the aesthetic of his first teacher, Lambert Jacobsz (ca. 1598–1636).
Flinck’s The Lamentation, 1637, in Tokyo, demonstrates the smoothmodeling and blunt chiaroscuro that marks the young artist’s works from thistransitional period of his career (fig 2).[8] The pinkish flesh tones, whitehighlights, and heavy black eyes in the Leiden Collection painting are entirely
consistent with the faces in The Lamentation.
As is evident in the Tokyo painting, as well as in his Isaac Blessing Jacob,
datable to about 1635 (fig 3), Flinck had a penchant for painting heads inprofile.[9] With most of these profiles, Flinck used the telling device of a swathof dark hair that falls down the far side of the face, coming forward a bit
artificially, and sets off the lighter contour. Flinck may have adapted this wayof arranging hair from Rembrandt’s early self-portraits, but he quickly
abandoned this approach in his later works as he gained mastery of thehuman head and its lighting from a variety of angles. Perhaps Flinck had
another Passion scene in mind when he made this relatively direct study,
which is both powerfully observed from life and rendered in a compelling
fashion.[10]- David DeWitt, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in Profile (Previously “Portrait of a Jew in Profile”)
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1. “Zijn hair is van rijpe hazelnoten verwe, boven, na gewoonte der Nazareen, gescheyden, en
tot de ooren toe effen, maer voort nederwaerts rond krullende, geelachtich blinkende, en vanzijne schouderen afwaejende; hy is schoon van voorhooft, zonder rimpel of vlekke in `taengezicht; zijn wangen zijn versiert met Roozeverwe, hebbende niets aen zijn lichaem dat teberispen is; zijn baert is groot en overvloedich van hair, niet lang, maer in `t midden verdeelt;
het opslach zijner oogen vertoont wel een simpelheyt, maer versiert met rypicheyt; zijn oogen
zijn klaer en ontsachlijk, noyt bereyt tot lichen.” Samuel van Hoogstraten, Inleyding tot dehooge schoole der schilderkonst: Anders de zichtbaere werelt (Rotterdam, 1678), 105. For
the English translation, see Gary Schwartz, The Rembrandt Book (New York, 2006), 303.
2. Erik Inglis, Faces of Power and Piety (Los Angeles, 2008), 23; and Lloyd DeWitt, “TestingTradition Against Nature: Rembrandt’s Radical New Image of Jesus,” in Rembrandt and theFace of Jesus, ed. Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos, and George S. Keyes (Exh. cat. Paris, Muséedu Louvre; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts) (Philadelphia, 2011),
121–22. The letter, which was purportedly sent by a certain Publius Lentulus to the Roman
senate during Christ’s lifetime, described his physical appearance. The text of the letter wastransmitted in various publications over the years, and was well known in the seventeenthcentury (see fig. 1).
3. Lloyd DeWitt, “Testing Tradition Against Nature: Rembrandt’s Radical New Image of Jesus,”in Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, ed. Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos, and George S. Keyes(Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit, Detroit Institute ofArts) (Philadelphia, 2011), 109–45.
4. Franziska Gottwald, “The Heads of Christ in the Context of the Tronie,” in Rembrandt and theFace of Jesus, ed. Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos, and George S. Keyes (Exh. cat. Paris, Muséedu Louvre; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts), 154–55. For thedefinition of the painting category tronie, see ibid., 147–51.
5. “Dit beeldt is naar een Joodt gemaalt.” Jan Vos, “Christus, voor Joris de Wyze, door Govert
Flinck, naar een Joodt, geschildert,” in Alle de Gedichten van den Poëet Jan Vos, vol. 1(Amsterdam, 1662), 512. See also Gary Schwartz, The Rembrandt Book (New York, 2006),
303.
6. See Lloyd DeWitt, “Testing Tradition Against Nature: Rembrandt’s Radical New Image ofJesus,” in Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, ed. Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos, and George S.
Keyes (Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit, Detroit
Institute of Arts) (Philadelphia, 2011), 122.
7. Peter Klein, letter of 22 February 2008. See also the Technical Summary.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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8. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 2:1019, no. 612, 1044 (ill.).
9. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94),
2:1019, no. 613, 1045 (ill.). He appears to have inherited this penchant from his first teacher.
10. It is probably not the painting criticized by Jan Vos in his poem, however, as he describes theface of Jesus as “shining”: “Het hart is anders dan het aanzicht dat hier straalt” (The heart isdifferent than the face that shines here). Jan Vos, “Christus, voor Joris de Wyze, door Govert
Flinck, naar een Joodt, geschildert,” in Alle de Gedichten van den Poëet Jan Vos…
(Amsterdam, 1662), 512.

Provenance[Bijl-Van Urk B. V., Alkmaar, by 2006, as by School of Rembrandt].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Exhibition History
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Rembrandt et la figure du Christ / Rembrandt and the Face ofJesus,” 21 April–18 July 2011; Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 3 August–30
October 2011; Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, 20 November 2011–12 February 2012, no. 42,
as by School of Rembrandt [lent by the present owner].

References
DeWitt, Lloyd. “La tradition à l’épreuve de la nature: Rembrandt et son image radicalement
neuve du Christ.” In Rembrandt et la figure du Christ. Edited by Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos,
and George S. Keyes, 133–34, no. 4.15, 244, no. 42, as by School of Rembrandt. Exh. cat.
Paris, Musée du Louvre; Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit, Detroit Institute ofArts. Calenzano, 2011.
DeWitt, Lloyd. “Testing Tradition Against Nature: Rembrandt’s Radical New Image ofJesus.” In Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus. Edited by Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos, andGeorge S. Keyes. 130, 133, no. 4.15, 242, no. 42, as by School of Rembrandt. Exh. cat.
Paris, Musée du Louvre; Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit, Detroit Institute of© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Portrait of a Man in Profile (Previously “Portrait of a Jew in Profile”)
Page 7 of 7Arts. Philadelphia, 2011.

Technical SummaryThe support, a single plank of thin, vertically grained, rectangular oak, has a tree-ring sequencethat was not found to match eastern Baltic, western European, or other dated or undated
reference data.[1] The unthinned and uncradled panel has bevels along all four sides. The panel
reverse has a label but no wax seals, import stamps, inscriptions or panel maker’s mark.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a brown imprimatura. Theground remains visible through the brown glazes along the shoulder of the figure’s jacket. The
paint has been applied with visible brushwork throughout, including along the background;however, it is most pronounced through the figure’s face, hair and jacket. More opaque paintapplied along the background extends up to the curls. The contour line that defines the nostril
along the underside of the nose and the one between the two lips form two pronounced raised
horizontal lines.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at
780–1000 nanometers.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in agood state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The identification of the wood is based on Ian Tyers’s 2010 dendrochronology report.
Dendrochronology undertaken by Peter Klein in 2006 found “an earliest felling date can bederived for the year 1617, more plausible is a felling date between 1621..1623….1627 + x.
With a minimum of 2 years for seasoning an earliest creation of the painting is possible from1619 upwards. Under the assumption of a median of 15 sapwood rings and 2 years forseasoning a creation is plausible from 1625 upwards.”© 2020 The Leiden Collection