Oil Painting, 'Head of Man in Civil Costume', manner of Dutch School, 17th century

An oil portrait of a man in 17th-century Dutch civil costume.

Bequeathed by Mrs Duroure

Bequeathed by Mrs Duroure, 1864
The V&A central inventory indicates that nos. 305/312-1864 were bequeathed by Mrs Duroure and the annual report of the Science and Art Department describes briefly the individual works.
A hand written note (Kauffmann?) in the Paintings object files reads:

'the Duroure pictures are described in the letter of acceptance g 6.4.1864 as follows:
2 small Dutch pictures- drinking subjects
1 landscape, Roman
1 Rubens, Samson and lion
1 Simon Vouel [sic]
1 Sir Walter Raleigh
2 Landscapes, Waterloo'

Although the sitter in this portrait appears to be dressed in Dutch civil costume of the seventeenth century, as Michael Kauffmann records in his 1973 Catalogue of Foreign Paintings Before 1800, the painting is a nineteenth century imitation.

On the basis of the sitter’s white collar, known as a falling-band, the costume can be dated to the 1640s. Falling-band collars were fashionable throughout the first half of the 17th century. However falling-bands of the 1620s and 1630s were wide, covering the shoulders, it wasn’t until the 1640s that a narrow style of falling-band appeared.

This portrait may be a copy after a specific 17th century portrait, however it is generalised to the extent that determining an exact source has not been possible. There are broad similarities to the work of Haarlem painters Frans Hals (1580-1666) and Jan Cornelisz Verspronck (1603-1662) in composition, with the sitter shown against a plain, dark background, lit from the right and holding something (possibly gloves or paper) in his clenched left hand. However, these are generic similarities to a ‘type’ of portrait popular in Holland in the mid-seventeenth century.

It was not uncommon for art students to copy the work of the old masters and it is possible that this painting was produced for this purpose, although its small size makes this questionable. The portrait was formerly part of the Museum’s Circulation collection, which was circulated to art schools as examples for students and may therefore have been acquired as indicative of the style of Dutch Golden Age portraiture, despite being a copy itself.

A 19th century imitation.

The sitter in this painting is wearing Dutch civil costume, which can be roughly dated to the 1640s on the basis of his narrow ‘falling-band’ collar. The painting is broadly similar in type to the Dutch Golden Age portraits of Haarelm School artists Frans Hals (1580-1666) and Jan Cornelisz Verspronck (1603-1662). However, the painting is in fact nineteenth century imitation of a seventeenth century Dutch painting. The work maybe a copy after a specific Golden Age portrait, however to date it has not been possible to identify an exact source.

311-1864