Portrait of a Man with a High Hat
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
9 5/8 x 7 1/2 in. (24.4 x 19.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Accession Number
32.100.104
Tags
Art Historical Context
This intimate *Portrait of a Man with High Hat*, created by an anonymous French painter captures the poised elegance of its subject in oil on wood—a medium favored for its smooth surface and durability, ideal for, jewel-like renderings in European portraiture. Measuring just 9⅝ × 7½ inches (24.4 × 19.1 cm), the small scale invites close viewing, suggesting it may have been a personal keepsake or study, common in French artistic traditions where such panels allowed for precise brushwork and luminous glazes. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of European Paintings, this work ...
About the Artist
French Painter
"French Painter" is a scholarly attribution designation used by art historians and museum curators to catalogue paintings produced in France — or by artists trained in the French tradition — when the specific creator cannot be identified with confidence. Rather than leave a work without provenance context or assign it speculatively to a named artist, curators apply this designation alongside an ap...