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With his luxurious blue mantle, fine gloves adorned with gold fringe, and self-assured gaze, this man epitomizes the elegance and high status of Bol’s patrons in mid-17th-century Amsterdam. While the identity of the sitter is unknown, he may have been connected to the city’s magistrates or admiralty, as were many of Bol’s sitters after his 1653 marriage into the Amsterdam elite. The small format of the painting suggests that the portrait was executed to be hung in a home.
Bol, a talented pupil of Rembrandt in the late 1630s, here sheds the muted palette that he learned from his master in favor of a more colorful one reflecting the fashion of the upper classes in the 1650s.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Cain, Indianapolis;{1}
Mrs. Joseph E. Cain Indianapolis;
gift of Mrs. Joseph E. Cain to the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1979 (79.346).{2}
{1} A note, recording information given by the Cains in conversation, states that the painting was purchased from a "New York Gallery," IMA Historical File (79.346). {2} Temporary Receipt No. 2582/9.
