Portrait of a Man with a Ruff

Werner Jacobsz. van den Valckert (Dutch, about 1580/85–about 1627)

1616

Medium/TechniqueOil on panel

Dimensions73 x 55.5 cm (28 3/4 x 21 7/8 in.)

Credit LineGift of Edward Waldo Forbes

Accession number06.1909

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

Dutch portraitists active in the first decades of the 17th century frequently produced restrained works in which the sitter looks out with a calm, steady gaze. Such static sobriety may have been intended to indicate the patron’s rational self-control. Here, Van den Valckert’s delicate brushwork emphasizes the tactility of skin and fabric. His unknown subject must be relatively affluent—he wears black satin clothing with brocading and decorative slits and slips his hand into a deerskin glove. Is he preparing to head outdoors?

InscriptionsCenter right: A E 35 / A 1616 / W V VALCKERT / PIN CET [ALC joined]ProvenanceBy 1852, Johann Peter Weyer (b. 1794 - d. 1864), Cologne [see note 1]; August 25, 1862, Weyer sale, Heberle, Cologne, lot 421, sold for 80 M. Possibly André Georges Mniszech (b. 1823 – d. 1905), Wisniowiec, Poland (today Vishnevets, Ukraine) and Paris; 1885, possibly by inheritance, through his wife, Anna Maria Barbara Luiza Potocka (b. 1828 – d. 1885), Wisniowiec, Poland and Paris, to his son, Count Léon Vandalin Mniszech (b. 1849 – d. 1901), Wisniowiec, Poland and Paris [see note 2]; April 9-11, 1902, posthumous Mniszech sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, lot 179, to Charles Fairfax Murray (dealer; b. 1849 - d. 1919), London; April 16, 1902, sold by Murray to Thos. Agnew and Sons, London (stock no. 386); January 13, 1902, sold by Agnew back to Murray; by 1906, sold by Murray to Edward Waldo Forbes (b. 1873 - d. 1969), Cambridge, MA; 1906, gift of Edward Waldo Forbes to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 1, 1906)

NOTES:
[1] The painting was no. 239 in the 1852 catalogue of Weyer's collection; see Horst Vey, "Johann Peter Weyer: seine Gemäldesammlung und seine Kunstliebe," Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch 28 (1966): 233.

[2] Following the family’s move to Paris, André Georges Mniszech began purchasing art under his wife’s name, Anna Maria Barbara Luiza Potocka, as André Mniszech had accrued a large amount of debt. Since Anna Potocka legally owned the Paris art collection, her son Léon Vandalin Mniszech inherited the collection upon her death in 1885. André Georges Mniszech retained the part of his art collection he had acquired under his own name. See Tomasz F. de Rosset, “Obrazy z Wiśniowca w kolekcji Andrzeja Mniszcha,” Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici. Zabytkoznawstwo I Konserwatorstwo 25, no. 280 (1994): 146.