Portrait of an Ecclesiastic

c. 1480

Shown from the waist up against a vivid red background, a pale-skinned, cleanshaven man looks off to our left in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and his head tilts down so he looks in that direction from under faint eyebrows. He has bags under brown eyes, sunken cheeks, and soft jowls. He has a rounded nose and wide chin. His pale pink lips are closed and the far corner appears to be pulled slightly back. A close-fitting brimless black cap nearly covers his gray hair, and he wears an inky-black cloak over a black robe. His hands are together in prayer in the lower left corner of the panel, and the background is scarlet red.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 39

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera and oil on oak

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 28.8 x 22.2 cm (11 5/16 x 8 3/4 in.)
    framed: 35.6 x 27.9 x 3.2 cm (14 x 11 x 1 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.54

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Léopold Goldschmidt [1830-1904], Paris, by 1902.[1] (Paul Drey, New York); sold 18 June 1953 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] Goldschmidt is cited as the owner in Georges Hulin de Loo, Exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe, and XVIe siècles. Catalogue critique, exh. cat., Hôtel du Gouvernement Provincial, Ghent, 1902: 139, no. 381.
[2] A copy of the bill of sale from Paul Drey to Kress is in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1728.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1902

  • Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien, Hôtel de Gouvernement Provincial, Bruges, 1902, no.381, as by van der Weyden.

Bibliography

1902

  • Hulin de Loo, Georges. Exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe, et XVIe siècles. Catalogue critique. Exh. cat. Hôtel du Gouvernement Provincial, Bruges. Ghent, 1902: 106, no. 381.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 80, no. 28, 81, repro.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 331, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 53.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 45, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 134, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 243-244, fig. 236.

1979

  • Sterling, Charles. "La peinture sur panneau picarde et son rayonnement dans le nord de la France au XVe siècle." Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français (1979): 23-24, fig. 19.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 142, no. 145, color repro., as by French School.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 23, repro.

1994

  • Girault, Pierre-Gilles. Le maître de Saint Gilles. Peinture et histoire entre France et Flandre au tour de 1500. 2 vols. Saint-Florent-sur-Cher, 1979: 2:40-41.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 44, 212-214, color repro.

2024

  • Rath, Markus. "Grundmuster: Ausdrucksfunktionen des monochromen Hintergrundes im Renaissanceporträt" Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 87, no. 1 (2024): 101, fig. 18.

Wikidata ID

Q20174325

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