Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
This is a fine, sensitive portrait of a wealthy gentleman, very expensively and fashionably dressed.
The identity of the sitter has been lost, but it is almost certainly a marriage portrait; the portrait of his wife is also on this website.
Clothes and accessories were of enormous importance at this period. Often immense sums were spent on them, and sitters were justifiably proud and anxious to show them off. Their clothes and accessories also carried strong social connotations.
The artist invests the portrait with a quiet dignity, the beautifully painted face seems to glow with life.
He subtly evokes the textures of the sitter's costume, underlining their costliness.
Black was the high fashion of that era and the artist rises to the challenge of painting black on black to depict the subtleties of the garments.
Beautifully moulded by light and colour, this portrait has a strong human presence that reaches across four centuries.
GORTZIUS GELDORP (1553–1618) was a Flemish Renaissance artist distinguished himself through his portrait paintings.
After training in Antwerp, first with Frans Francken and later with Frans Pourbus, he became court painter to Charles of Aragon, Duke of Terranova. In 1604 he went with the Duke to Cologne, where he remained for the rest of his life, working primarily as a portrait painter for the well-to-do. Most of his 70 works are painted on panel. Nine examples of his work are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The sitters were painted either three-quarter-length, half-length or head and shoulders; they are traditional in style but painted in a smoother manner than portraits by the old Cologne masters.
He had a brilliant and powerful palette in which the browns dominate. His later works are characterised by soft transitions and a blueish tone in the wrists and neck of his subjects.
He died in Cologne, aged about 65. The painter Georg Geldorp who was mainly active in England was his son. The painter Melchior Geldorp who worked in Cologne was probably his son or nephew.
SIZE: 24.5 x 22 inches including frame.
PROVENANCE: Deceased Irish country estate.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of a Gentleman C. 1590-1610; Attributed to Gortzius Geldorp.
