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Jan Gossaert
Flemish, c. 1472–1532
Portrait of a Gentleman
c. 1530
Despite his distinctive facial features, this sitter’s identity is unknown. His extravagant costume, fine gloves, and manicured hands suggest a life of wealth and luxury, and his hat is adorned with a pin showing a young man struggling to lift a stone tower. The inscription surrounding this image may be a warning about the folly of decadence; it translates from French as: “He who holds too much wearies himself in vain.”
Image Caption
Jan Gossaert, Portrait of a Gentleman, c. 1530, oil on panel transferred to canvas. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Executors of Governor Lehmans Estate and the Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation, 1968.298
Medium
oil on panel transferred to canvas
Dimensions
25 x 20 1/8 in. (63.5 x 51.1 cm)
Object Number
1968.298
Acquisition
Gift of the Executors of Governor Lehman's Estate and the Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation, 1968
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische malerei. Fourteen volumes. Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1934–37. Hamilton, George Heard. On the Occasion of the Opening of the Collection of Governor and Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman. Exhibition brochure. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1976. Anonymous. "La Chronique des Arts: Principales Acquisitions des Musées en 1975." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 89 (supplement, March 1977). Brooks, John H. Highlights: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Murphy, Alexandra R., et al. Paintings from the Collection of Governor and Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Williams College Museum of Art and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1985. Margaret Pascoe.. "Blackwork Portrait?". Embroidery.. Spring 1989.. Dülberg, Angelica. Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag. 1990. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Liedtke, Walter, and Guy Ballman. Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Flandria Extra Muros. Antwerp: Mercator Fonds. 1992. Yvonne Hackenbroch.. Enseignes: Renaissance Hat-Badges.. Florence: S.P.E.S.. 1996.. Held, Julius S. "Old Masters in the Clark Collection, Part I: Paintings." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 504–9. Penny, Nicholas. National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paitings. Vol. I Paintings from Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona. London: National Gallery Company distributed by Yale University Press. 2004. Ainsworth, Maryan W., ed. Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance. Exh. cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.