Portrait of a Man

...; collection Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), Paris, before 1804, whence removed following his exile; displayed in Rome, Palazzo Lancellotti, Primo Salone, no. 8 (‘Ritratto di Rubens, Vandik’), 13 June 1804;¹¹List of 13 June 1804 by Domenico Conti Bazzani in M. Natoli (ed.), Luciano Bonaparte: Le sue collezione d’arte, le sue residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia (1804-1840), Rome 1995, app. 1, p. 40. transferred to the Palazzo Nuñez, room no. 74, 1806-10, 1811-22;²²G.A. Guattani, Galleria del Senatore Luciano Bonaparte, 2 vols., Rome 1808, II, p. 7. offered by Lucien Bonaparte now Prince of Canino, to the Accademia di San Luca for 2500 scudi, 1820;³³M. Natoli (ed.), Luciano Bonaparte: Le sue collezione d’arte, le sue residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia (1804-1840), Rome 1995, app. 3, p. 44. application for a license to export to Bologna, as ‘Wandick: Ritratto di Rubens’, 17 October 1823;⁴⁴M. Natoli (ed.), Luciano Bonaparte: Le sue collezione d’arte, le sue residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia (1804-1840), Rome 1995, app. 4, p. 45. application for an export license for the purpose of sale, as ‘Ritratto di Rubens’, January 1826;⁵⁵M. Natoli (ed.), Luciano Bonaparte: Le sue collezione d’arte, le sue residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia (1804-1840), Rome 1995, app. 5, pp. 46-47. from whom purchased by the dealer Armand-Jacques Fossard, Paris;⁶⁶B. Edelein-Badie, La collection de tableaux de Lucien Bonaparte, prince de Canino, Paris 1997, no. 78, referring to a handwritten annotation on the Musée Marmottan, Paris, copy of Choix de Gravures … d’après Les Peintures originales de la Galerie de Lucien Buonaparte, 1812. B.B. Fredericksen and B. Peronnet (eds.), Repertoire des tableaux vendus en France au XIXe siècle , I (1801-1810), Los Angeles 1998, II, p. 1407. ? from whom purchased by the dealer John Smith, July 1830, with SK-C-295, and recorded in his possession as a portrait of John Baptist Franck priced at 300 gns, 1831;⁷⁷It was a pendant to J. Smith, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish and French painters , 9 vols., London 1829-42, II, 1830, no. 800 (SK-C-295). from whom, with SK-C-295, £ 250, to Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), Amsterdam, staying at the Caledonian Hotel, London (‘A fine Portrait of J. B. Francks. By Vandyck […] from the same [Lucien Bonaparte] Coll.n in a similar carved framed comp.n Picture’), 12 July 1833;⁸⁸Smith & Successors Stock Book, 1822-1850, p. 35; Day Book, 1827-1836, p. 396, Ledger, 1829-1866, p. 46, the National Art Library, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Van der Hoop Lijst, pp. 5, 23, no. 67: ‘Een Mansportret van Franks, waarschynlyk van G. Franck, Directeur van de Academie te Antwerpen Ao 1634, door Van Dyck, with SK-C-295, voor £ 1050 NB Deze 2 Schilderyen van Rubens en van Dyck zyn afkomstig uit de Verzamelingen van Lucien Bonaparte’. by whom bequeathed to the City of Amsterdam with 223 other paintings, 1854;⁹⁹Van der Hoop Taxatie 1854, p. 3, no. 67: ‘Portret van JB Franks, fl. 3,500’. on loan from the City of Amsterdam to the museum, since 30 June 1885¹⁰¹⁰The present author substantially augmented the provenance reconstructed in A. Pollmer-Schmidt, ‘Catalogus van de schilderijen in de verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop’, in E. Bergvelt et al. (eds.), De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier. De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum/Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, pp. 135-195, p. 148, no. 51.

ObjectNumber: SK-C-284

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)

The canvas support of this painting is glue-lined. The tacking edge has been laid out at the top and bottom, and cut away at the sides. The apex of the cusping is thus only evident up to approx. 1 cm from the top and bottom. The ground is probably of a white colour; the imprimatura layer may be yellow. What might be dead colouring can be detected in the face and hand. De Poorter believes a millstone ruff may have been overpainted beneath the chin, neck and hair in which case the collar and black costume nearby would be later.¹⁴¹⁴De Poorter in S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. I.150.

Anthony van Dyck’s authorship of this portrait has been generally accepted, and there is no reason to doubt that he executed the face and hand. The status of the black of the cloak is less certain and cannot be determined until cleaning has taken place, especially if a large millstone collar has been suppressed beneath the chin, neck and hair at a later date, as De Poorter surmises. If she is correct, the head and shoulders would have looked like that in the bust-length portrait in the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, Brussels.¹⁵¹⁵De Poorter in S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. I.150. Dated by Glück¹⁶¹⁶G. Glück, Van Dyck: Des Meisters Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst, 2nd revised ed., Stuttgart/New York/London 1931, p. 294 (right). and more hesitantly by Schaeffer¹⁷¹⁷E. Schaeffer, Van Dyck: Des Meisters Gemälde in 537 Abbildungen, Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben XIII, Stuttgart/Leipzig 1909, p. 258 as 1627-1632; p. 507, note 258 as perhaps an early work. to Van Dyck’s second Antwerp period (c. 1627-1632/1634), Müller Hofstede¹⁸¹⁸J. Müller Hofstede, ‘Neue Beiträge zum Oeuvre Anton Van Dycks’, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48-49 (1987-88), pp. 123-86, esp. p. 135. convincingly placed it in the first (c. 1613-1620), dating it around 1619-20, in which he is followed, with some qualification, by De Poorter. A convincing chronology of Van Dyck’s oeuvre during his first Antwerp period has not been established; the present portrait is quite distinct and so removed from the handling of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), an early paramount influence, that it is indeed likely to have been executed towards the end of the first phase of his career.

The identity of the sitter is uncertain. Smith identified him as Jan Baptist Franck on the basis of the inscription; this has been followed by the museum (as Jan Baptista Franck). Van der Hoop believed that it might have been intended to refer to a ‘G. Franck’, director of the Antwerp Academy in 1634.¹⁹¹⁹E. Bergvelt et al. (eds.), De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier. De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum/Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, Lijst, pp. 5, 23, no. 67: ‘Een Mansportret van Franks, waarschynlyk van G. Franck, Directeur van de Academie te Antwerpen Ao 1634, door Van Dyck, with SK-C-295, voor £ 1050 NB Deze 2 Schilderyen van Rubens en van Dyck zyn afkomstig uit de Verzamelingen van Lucien Bonaparte’. The source for this misinformation was Descamps;²⁰²⁰J.B. Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, avec des portraits, 4 vols., Paris 1753-64, II, 1754, p. 48. the institution was founded in 1663.

There have been several attempts at attaching a biography to the person with the name and age given in the inscription. The existence of an artist so named is to a degree substantiated by an entry – Jan Baptista Francq. – in the index of De Bie’s Het gulden cabinet of 1662; the reference is to a page where, confusingly, only Gabriel [Francq.] and ‘Den Ionghen Franck’ are discussed, following mention of Sebastian Franck [i.e. Vrancx] on the previous page.²¹²¹C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vry schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecten, beldthouwers ende plaetsnyders van dese eeuw, Antwerp s.a. (1662), p. 581, referring to his p. 101. It is curious that the name occurs in the accounts of the estate of the widow of the sculptor Hans van Mildert (1588-1638), Elizabeth Waeyens, who died on 13 March 1657. The official guild accounts of 7 November 1659 itemize a mortuary debt settled with Jan Baptista Franck, ‘deken van de gulde van Sinte-Lucas’.²²²²E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, VIII, 1995, pp. 94-95 (notary A. van der Donck); P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, 1876 (1961), p. 281. However, the dean for the year of death, 1657-58, was ‘Francisco’ Franck, that is Frans Francken III (1607-1667; for a biography of whom see e.g. BK-NM-4190).²³²³P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, 1876 (1961), p..279.

Descamps in his Lives, published in 1754, allocated a separate entry to Jan Baptist Franck, to whom he believed many paintings by the Franck[en] family were attributed in the hope of enhancing their value, as he was considered to be of superior merit.²⁴²⁴J.B. Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, avec des portraits, 4 vols., Paris 1753-64, II, 1754, pp. 47-48. Several paintings (one signed Den j. [jonghe] ffranck) are described as by Jan Baptist Francken in Hoet’s published series of eighteenth-century, Netherlandish auction sale catalogues,²⁵²⁵G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver Pryzen Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Benevens een Verzamelingvan Lysten van Verscheyden nog in wezen zynde Cabinetten, 3 vols., The Hague 1752-70, II, p. 108, lot 161; p. 145, no. 14 (the Mauritshuis picture, signed Den j. Ffranck, see U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, no. 431); P. Terwesten, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver prysen, zedert den 22. Augusti 1752, tot den 21. November 1768 Zo in Holland, als Braband en andere Plaatzen in het openbaar Verkogt. Dienende tot een vervolg of Derde Deel op de Twee Deelen der uitgegeeve Cataloguen door wylen de Heer Gerard Hoet; Zynde hier agter gevoegt: Catalogus van een gedeelte van’t vorstelyk Kabinet Schilderyen van Zynde Doorl. Hoogheid, den Heere Prince van Orange en Nassau, Erfstadhouder, Capitain-Generaal en Admiraal der Verëenigde Nederlanden, &c. &c. &c., The Hague 1770, p. 493, no. 2. and two apparently signed paintings are recorded in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse.²⁶²⁶U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, under no. 396A.

However, no artist of this name is recorded in the lists of the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke; and were Jan Baptist Franck to be an alias for either one of the two artists called ‘den jonghen’ Frans Francken, it has to be said that neither of them was a thirty-two-year-old about 1620, the likely date of execution of the present picture. And in spite of the efforts of Müller Hofstede,²⁷²⁷J. Müller Hofstede, ‘Neue Beiträge zum Oeuvre Anton Van Dycks’, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48-49 (1987-88), pp. 123-86, esp. note 29, pp. 180-81. Härting²⁸²⁸U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, note 442, pp. 205-6, and under no. 396A. has concluded that the existence of an artist with this name, at least active in Antwerp, is unlikely (in spite of which one such is mentioned in the recent account of the Francken family of artists in the relevant 2004 volume of Saur’s Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon). In fact, De Poorter was unable to propose any identification. The sitter, of course, need not have been an artist, although such a prominent mantle as worn here (of which how much is original is unclear) seems to have been favoured by artists who sat to Van Dyck about this time and a decade or so later.²⁹²⁹De Poorter in S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. I.109 and later nos. III.152 and 161.

Very few of Van Dyck’s portraits were inscribed by the artist with the sitter’s name; none is extant that dates from this period of his activity. The inscription on the present picture (described by De Poorter as exceptional) is actually a later addition, very likely added after lining and on top of overpaint. Questions then arise as to when this took place, and whether the inscription was an invention or repeated an earlier (authentic?) inscription on the reverse of the original canvas.

It is impossible to say at this stage whether the lining and introduction of the present inscription took place before the portrait was acquired by Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840) – allowing sufficient time for the writing to be obscured by discolouring varnish, for it was then believed that the sitter was Rubens – or after his disposal of it and before Smith’s publication of the sitter’s identity in 1831.

Gregory Martin, 2022

De Poorter in S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. I.147

1885, p. 105, no. 197; 1887, p. 39, no. 308; 1903, p. 91, no. 855; 1934, p. 90, no. 855; 1976, p. 208, no. C 284

G. Martin, 2022, 'Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of a Man, c. 1620', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8288