- Portrait of a Man
Artist: Abraham de Vries (Dutch, born about 1590, died 1649/50)
Title: Portrait of a Man
Date: 1643
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: 25 1/4 x 21 in. (64.1 x 53.3 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchase, 1871
Accession Number: 71.63
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art
I like this portrait. The sitter looks like he has a pleasant personality, instead of the stern faces we see on many of the old portraits. I wonder what his name was. His collar makes him look important, like an official of the court or a church.
metmuseum.org
ALSO SEE: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam especially the Header.
Portrait of a Woman
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Artist: Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, 1606–1669)
Title: Portrait of a Woman
Date: 1633
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: Oval, 26 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. (67.9 x 50.2 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
Accession Number 14.40.625
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art
metmuseum.org
I guess you would call this a “ruched” collar. It’s also called a “ruff.” There’s a neck in there somewhere. I wonder what the collar was made of. It almost separates the head from the body.
This lady also has a pleasant look to her. She has quite a high forehead. In some paintings I’ve seen, the ladies’ foreheads are extremely high – a fashion of the day or their natural physical appearance?
Note that this is painted on an oval-shaped piece of wood. (I love to do portraits on oval canvases, but it’s not always easy to frame them.)
And about this artist named “Rembrandt” – he’s pretty good!
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