Portrait of a Man
1657–58
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
104.2 × 88.1 cm (41 1/16 × 34 11/16 in.); Framed: 125.8 × 114.3 × 10.2 cm (49 1/2 × 45 × 4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
49422
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This portrait, at once elegant and direct, may be a remnant of a larger painting of the consuls, or civic administrators, of Montpellier, Sébastien Bourdon’s native city in the south of France. Bourdon returned there briefly in the midst of a career that included early years in Rome, successful activity in Paris, and a short stint at the Stockholm court of Queen Christina of Sweden from 1652 to 1653. The large, isolated swath of fabric on the left and the absence of the sitter’s left hand sugges...
About the Artist
Sébastien Bourdon · 1616–1671
Sébastien Bourdon (1616–1671) was a French Baroque painter of remarkable versatility and restless ambition, whose career carried him from the workshops of Paris to the courts of Rome and Stockholm before he returned to France to become a founding member of one of Europe's most important artistic institutions. Born on 2 February 1616 in Montpellier into a Protestant family, Bourdon was apprenticed ...