Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat

Flemish 17th Century (Possibly Jan Cossiers)

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the hips up, a pale-skinned man with a Van Dyck beard stands with one hand on his hip in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body faces our right almost in profile, but he turns his head to look at us from the corners of his brown eyes under lifted, black brows. The bridge of his nose is slightly flattened, and he has full pink lips, a pointed chin, and chin-length, wavy black hair. His mustache flares upward at the ends, and a line of hair grows down his chin. The wide brim of his hat would nearly have reached his shoulders, but it sits angled on the back of his head. Layers of white lace create a round collar resting on his chest over a black jacket. The coat is slashed over the chest and upper arms of the sleeves so the white shirt underneath is visible. The jacket is also partially unbuttoned over his torso. The cuff we can see reaches from his wrist along his forearm and is edged in lace. The back of that hand rests against that hip, and the cloth of a black cloak is bunched up around that hand. Black drapery fills most of the background but is pulled back to our right to reveal a landscape with a sunset-streaked sky.