Portrait of a Gentleman

This is a portrait of a gentleman in a dark suit with a white collar and cuffs, painted as a half-length figure.

Pieter Nason was a respected portrait and still life painter who spent most of his career in The Hague.

His portraits of fashionable patrons resemble the smooth, highly polished paintings of his contemporary, Bartholomeus van der Helst in Amsterdam. Van der Helst's portraits were more popular than Rembrandt's at the time. Little is known about Nason's life. He trained under the painter Jan van Ravensteyn and lived in Amsterdam in 1638. The following year, he became a member of the painters' guild in The Hague.

Around 1666, Nason worked at the court of the Elector in Berlin for some time and then returned to The Hague.

The subjects of his paintings were invariably aristocratic patrons dressed in elaborate clothing. In this portrait, the sitter's status is evident from his embroidered white collar and cuffs.

Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated '1663' in the lower right corner.