German

Portrait of a Man, mid 16th C.

Oil on panel, 18 7/8 x 16 1/8 x 2 5/8" 

The backs of paintings may often disclose information about a work’s provenance, or history of ownership. Here, the labels show that this painting by an unknown German artist, possibly in the school of Hans Holbein (1497-1543), was once in the collection of George P. Boyce, Esq. The label at top right denotes that the work was exhibited in The Tudor Exhibition at the New Gallery in 1890, while the one at lower left provides a faithful description of the subject. Research about this particular exhibition, and others to which the owner lent this painting, indicates that in 1890 it was exhibited in the West Hall of the New Gallery on Regent Street, London, alongside 136 other portraits of the royal family, nobility, and gentry, made during the time of Henry VIII (1509-1547). However, inscriptions can also be specious. At the end of the 19th century, this painting was thought to be a portrait of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. Decades of scholarship since leave this figure unidentified and simply referred to now as, Portrait of a Man

German, mid 16th C.

The Sedgwick Collection of Old Master Paintings