Portrait of a Gentleman, Nicolaes Maes

Artwork Overview

Nicolaes Maes, Portrait of a Gentleman
Nicolaes Maes, Portrait of a Gentleman
Nicolaes Maes
Portrait of a Gentleman
circa 1670
Nicolaes Maes
1634–1693
Portrait of a Gentleman, circa 1670
Where object was made: Netherlands
Material/technique: oil; canvas
Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 60.4 x 46.7 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 23 3/4 x 18 3/8 in
Credit line: Gift from the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection
Accession number: 1960.0053
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Empire of Things
Maes spent the last three decades of his life in Amsterdam painting portraits of the city’s elite. During the 17th century, Amsterdam residents lived in an international trading hub bustling with the interchange of goods and peoples traveling among Europe, Africa, the Americas, and East Asia. Many Amsterdammers made their wealth from trade and celebrated their accumulated fortune through the acquisition of foreign goods that often appear in portraits. Although much is still unknown about these sitters, they display an awareness of material culture beyond the borders of the Dutch Republic. The man wears a long powdered wig in emulation of contemporary French court fashion, and the woman shares in her husband’s elegance with her artfully disheveled dress. Both figures wear sumptuous swaths of silk, a material imported by the East India Company from China. The classical columns and dramatically revealed landscape backdrop suggest knowledge acquired through the Grand Tour.
Empire of Things
Maes spent the last three decades of his life in Amsterdam painting portraits of the city’s elite. During the 17th century, Amsterdam residents lived in an international trading hub bustling with the interchange of goods and peoples traveling among Europe, Africa, the Americas, and East Asia. Many Amsterdammers made their wealth from trade and celebrated their accumulated fortune through the acquisition of foreign goods that often appear in portraits. Although much is still unknown about these sitters, they display an awareness of material culture beyond the borders of the Dutch Republic. The man wears a long powdered wig in emulation of contemporary French court fashion, and the woman shares in her husband’s elegance with her artfully disheveled dress. Both figures wear sumptuous swaths of silk, a material imported by the East India Company from China. The classical columns and dramatically revealed landscape backdrop suggest knowledge acquired through the Grand Tour.
Exhibition Label: "Empire of Things," 2013, Denise Giannino Maes spent the last three decades of his life in Amsterdam painting portraits of the city’s elite. During the 17th century, Amsterdam residents lived in an international trading hub bustling with the interchange of goods and peoples traveling between Europe, Africa, the Americas, and East Asia. Many Amsterdammers made their wealth from trade and celebrated their accumulated fortune through the acquisition of foreign goods that often appear in portraits. While much is still unknown about these sitters, they display an awareness of material culture beyond the borders of the Dutch Republic. The man wears a long powdered wig in emulation of contemporary French court fashion, and the woman shares in her husband’s elegance with her artfully disheveled dress. Both figures wear sumptuous swaths of silk, a material imported by the East India Company from China. The classical columns and dramatically revealed landscape backdrop suggest erudition acquired through the Grand Tour.

Exhibitions

Empire of Things
Kris Ercums, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
2016–2021
Empire of Things
Kris Ercums, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
2013–2015
The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection
1960

Citations

Broun, Elizabeth. Handbook of the Collection: Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art. Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, 1978.

Stokstad, Marilyn, ed. The Handbook of the Museum of Art. Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas, 1962.

The University of Kansas Museum of Art. The Register of the Museum of Art: The Samuel H. Kress Foundation Study Collection 2, no. 4, March (1960):