An Unknown Man in Prayer
Hans Memling (Seligenstadt 1430/40 – Bruges 1494)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1485 - 1490
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
168 x 120 mm (6 5/8 x 4 3/4 in)
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446762
Caption
This portrait probably formed the right wing of a diptych. The left-hand side would have been a devotional image, probably a Madonna and Child. Memling was a German-born painter, often stylistically associated with the Early Netherlandish artists.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, An Unknown Man in Prayer by Hans Memling (Seligenstadt 1430/40 – Bruges 1494), circa 1485/90. A young man, head and shoulders, facing half left, with long dark hair, hands joined in prayer; he wears a brown cloak with a large fur collar over a black doublet with a white shirt visible at the neck; a ring on the index finger of the left hand. This is likely to be the right wing of a diptych, the companion of which was the Madonna and Child.
Provenance
Given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948) shortly before his death
Credit line
Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Hans Memling (Seligenstadt 1430/40 – Bruges 1494), artist
Exhibition history
New Light on Old Masters, Squash Court Gallery, 2013 Memling's Portraits, The Frick Collection, New York, 2005 Memling's Portraits, Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 2005
