Young Man in Oriental Costume

Ferdinand Bol (Dutch, 1616–1680)

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions151.2 x 123.5 cm (59 1/2 x 48 5/8 in.)

Credit LineRobert Dawson Evans Collection

Accession number17.3231

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

ProvenancePossibly with a Colonel (William?) Hope, London [see note 1]. 1803, with Mr. White, London; March 4, 1803, White and others sale, Christie's, London, 87, to Woodburn (probably John Woodburn), London for £136.10 [see note 2]; April 5-6, 1805, John Woodburn and others sale, Phillip's, London, lot 92, to Philip Metcalfe (b. 1733 - d. 1818), London for £105 [see note 3]; by descent to his great-nephew, Henry Metcalfe (b. 1791 - d. by 1850), London; June 15, 1850, posthumous Metcalfe sale, Christie's, London, lot 32, bought in [see note 4]; by descent within the family until the 20th century [see note 5]. December 11, 1909, anonymous ("property of a gentleman") sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, lot 146, to Lewis and Simmons, London, for £714 [see note 6]. By 1911 until at least 1913, Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris. 1914, Henry Reinhardt, New York; 1914, sold by Reinhardt, through Louis Ralston, New York, to Maria Antoinette Hunt (Mrs. Robert Dawson) Evans (b. 1845 - d. 1917), Boston [see note 7]; 1917, bequest of Mrs. Robert Dawson Evans to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 1, 1917)

NOTES:
[1] Charles Sedelmeyer wrote to Lionel Cust (March 24, 1915) after the painting had been sold to Mrs. Evans that "the person who sold it to me told me that he learned this picture ... belonged once to a Colonel Hope" and Sedelmeyer speculated that it had come from the Clinton-Hope collection. That it was with William Hope is according to Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. 6 (London, 1916), cat. no. 29. Neither of these suggestions has been verified.

[2] As Rembrandt, "Portrait of a Turkish Nobleman."

[3] As Rembrandt, "A capital Portrait of Belthazer." Information about the identity of the seller is taken from the Getty Provenance Index (sale catalogue Br-322).

[4] As Rembrandt, "A Man in an Oriental Dress and Turban."

[5] According to a letter from Charles Sedelmeyer to Lionel Cust (April 9, 1915), the painting remained in the Metcalfe family for "more than a century" until it was put up for sale in 1909.

[6] Whether the seller was a descendant of the Metcalfe family (as suggested by Sedelmeyer; as above, n. 5) is not clear. It sold as Rembrandt, "Portrait of an Oriental Prince." The buyer has also been recorded as "Smith."

[7] As Rembrandt, "The Young Samson".