A Young Man Seated at a Table (possibly Govaert Flinck)
Shown from the hips up, a young man with pale skin and wearing black clothing sits with his body angled to our right as he turns to look at us in this vertical portrait painting. He looks out with green eyes under hooded lids. Light falls across his face from the upper left so his bumped nose casts a shadow on his high cheekbone. He has a wispy mustache over full, pink lips, which are slightly parted. His hair falls to his shoulders in auburn-brown curls, framing his slender face. Two silvery tassels hang on cords from a tall, wide, flat, bright white collar, which contrasts with the velvety black of his voluminous, long-sleeved jacket. His left hand, farther from us, rests on his knee and the other hand is curled so the back of his knuckles press against his right hip, closer to us. A patch of crimson red near that hand could be a pillow on his chair. His hat rests, presumably on a table, just beyond his legs. The hat has a tall, tapering, conical crown with a flat top. The shadowy wall behind him is mottled with slate gray and caramel brown, with a slightly darker panel to suggest a shallow niche.
Details
- Palette
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- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 109.9 x 89.5 cm (43 1/4 x 35 1/4 in.) framed: 149.2 x 131.1 x 17.8 cm (58 3/4 x 51 5/8 x 7 in.)
- Department
- CNE-B
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
8 tags
Subject Matter
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The image depicts one principal sitter in a formal seated portrait, and the National Gallery of Art title identifies the work as A Young Man Seated at a Table.
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Eye Contact Both · 99%
The sitter turns his head toward the viewer and maintains a clearly visible direct gaze, consistent with the catalog description that he looks at us.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Visual · 99%
Black clothing and deep brown-black shadows dominate the composition, with limited lighter areas concentrated in the face, hands, collar, and background accents.
Medium and Techniques
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Chiaroscuro Visual · 96%
Strong illumination from the upper left models the sitter’s face and hands against a dark ground, producing pronounced light-dark contrast.
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Painting Metadata · 100%
The museum metadata identifies the object as a painting and gives the medium as oil on canvas.
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Oil Painting Metadata · 100%
The supplied museum metadata specifies the medium as oil on canvas.
Time Periods
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17th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to circa 1660, placing it within seventeenth-century art.
Geographic Regions
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Dutch Art Metadata · 94%
Rembrandt van Rijn is identified as the cataloged artist; his association supports the Dutch-art geographic tag.
Source & rights
Rembrandt van Rijn. A Young Man Seated at a Table (possibly Govaert Flinck). Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.