Portrait Of A Gentleman With Coat Of Arms

Flemish school, late 17th – early 18th century (c. 1680–1720)

Giltwood frame, contemporary or slightly later
The painting depicts a mature gentleman in half-length, turned three-quarters and facing the viewer. His stern and defined features are framed by long, wavy hair, with a small moustache and goatee. His attire reflects Flemish aristocratic and bourgeois fashion at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries: a dark garment with a white shirt and voluminous silk sleeves, gathered at the cuffs, and a broad embroidered flat collar, a clear sign of social status.
The hands are carefully rendered: the right holds a folded glove, while the left wears the other one, a gesture traditionally associated with dignity and rank. In the upper right corner, set against the plain background, is a polychrome coat of arms, identifying the sitter as a member of a noble Flemish family.
The work belongs to the tradition of late-Baroque Flemish portraiture, still rooted in 17th-century models but displaying the more polished and luminous taste of the early 18th century.