An Unknown Man with a Letter
Joos van Cleve (c.1480 - Antwerp 1541/51)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1537
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
476 x 349 mm (18 3/4 x 13 3/4 in)
Place of origin
Flanders (Belgium from 1830)
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486201
Summary
Oil painting on panel, An Unknown Man with a Letter by Joos van Cleve (?Kleve c.1464 - Antwerp c.1540), 1537. A half-length portrait, turned three-quarters to the right, with narrow eyes looking to the right; he is wearing a deep brown coat with a fur collar and a flat black cap; his hair is reddish chestnut and he has a short forked beard. On the forefinger of his right hand is a ring and in his left a letter inscribed '1537 ... A song'.
Provenance
Mentioned in 'Pictures Appras'd att Petworth by Mr Symon Stone the 30th of July 1671 (Alnwick Archives 72. MS 107 GC 26); thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by HM Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1956 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
1537 ..... A song (inscribed on letter in the left hand)
Makers and roles
Joos van Cleve (c.1480 - Antwerp 1541/51), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Hans Holbein the younger (Augsburg 1497/8 - London 1543), artist