Portrait of a Man,

1642

When this portrait appeared in a Christie’s, New York, sale in 1992, it bore a signature (“A. Cuyp. f”) and was attributed to an artist in the circle of Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp (1594–1652), father of the renowned Dutch landscape and animal painter, Aelbert Cuyp. However, the false signature came off with a light cleaning when it entered Princeton’s collections, and there is nothing in particular to connect it with seventeenth-century painting in Dordrecht, Cuyp’s hometown. The inscriptions indicate the portrait’s date (1642) and the man’s age (AE [in ligature] 60). The sitter is placed against a brown background; a sense of spatial depth is amplified by the shadow at right. The man, whose face is sensitively rendered, steadily regards the viewer, his furrowed brow implying a lively intellect. His full, beautifully painted ruff collar might have been considered conservative by the early 1640s. His sober dress, black skullcap, and full beard suggest that he may have been a clergyman.