Portrait Of A Gentleman In Black Attire And White Ruff C.1595, Oil On Copper Painting

This exquisite oil on copper portrait, painted around 430years ago, is a splendid survival from the Elizabethan era - the golden age inEngland’s history, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne.  It is a time that is sandwiched between twogolden ages of English renaissance culture, the reigns of Henry VIII andCharles I.  This period produced a styleof painting quite unlike that anywhere else in Europe and one that deservesserious assessment.  Just a couple ofyears after our portrait was painted, English painting developed on anothercourse, driven mainly by the artists Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger and IsaacOliver; they depicted a new mood that was pervading Elizabethan and Jacobeansociety, which was that of romantic melancholy. Elizabethan painting came to an end when Henry, Prince of Wales, soughta complete change of style of his father’s court. 

The portrait depicts a gentleman wearing fashionableclothing for the period - a black doublet, intricately detailed with goldthread, and a white ruff and lace cuffs edged in lace.  He holds gloves in his left hand and a feltconical capotain hat (which was worn indoor as well and outdoor) in his righthand.  The clothing, but mostspecifically, the type and width of the ruff and the height of the hat help todate the portrait to circa 1595.  Thissitter’s assumed confidence and refined costume, in the most expensive colourto dye and maintain, suggest he was a wealthy figure of some standing society. 

Surviving portraits from this period are relatively rare,considering that of the two percent of the population which made up the gentryclasses and above, most would not have owned anything beyond that of familyportraits and one of the reigning monarch. The work is exceptionally wellpreserved, revealing details of the artist’s technique that are often lost inworks of this age.  The minute brushworkin the ruff and highlights of the gold detail on the doublet indicate asophisticated level of modelling.  

In Elizabethan collections there was a total absence ofpainter’s names and they were often unrecorded and deemed unimportant, andsadly, the period lacked a contemporary chronicler, apart from Francis Meres(who provided only a cryptic list). Therefore, less than a century later, the names of native artists hadcompletely faded from memory, apart from a few well known artists such asNicholas Hilliard, who was Queen Elizabeth I’s limner, George Gower (fl.c.1540-1596),and Robert Peake (1551-1619).   

Held in a fine gilded period carved and gesso frame. 

Hieronimo Custodis, originally from Antwerp, was amongthe numerous Flemish artists at the Tudor court who fled to England to escapethe persecution faced by Protestants in the Spanish Netherlands. It is believedthat he arrived in England after the capture of Antwerp by the Duke of Parma'sforces in 1585.  Three portraits attributed to Custodis, inscribed anddated in 1589, firmly establish his residency in London by that year; however,a dated portrait of Edward Talbot confirms that he was already present there in1586.  By 1591, he resided in the parishof St. Bodolph-without-Aldgate, London, where "Jacobus, the son ofIeronyme Custodis, A Paynter," was baptized on March 2. It is presumedthat he died in 1593. 

Measurements: Height 36cm, Width 32cmframed (Height 14”, Width 12.5” framed)