(Alkmaar c. 1575–1641/1642 Hoorn)
Portrait of a Gentleman,
oil on canvas 118.3 x 91.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Sir Nicholas Edgar, Glemham Magna, Suffolk;
Anonymous Sale, Christie’s, London, 2 April 1900, lot 86 (as Frans Hals);
Eugène Fischhof, Paris;
Clement A. Griscom, Philadelphia (1903);
Mrs. Griscom;
American Art Association, New York, 26 February 1914, lot 19 (as Frans Hals);
W. B. Thompson, New York;
Anonymous Sale, Christie’s, New York, 7June 2002, lot 21

Literature:
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. III, London 1910, p. 56, no. 178 (as Frans Hals)

The present painting was considered to be a portrait of Nicholas Edgar, Glenham Magna by Frans Hals and it was published accordingly (see literature).

Sabine Craft-Giepmans and Rudi Ekkart identified the painting as a work by the West Frisian artist Waben. Craft-Giepmans noted that whilst the elegant pose of the bent arm with the back of the hand resting at the sitters hip is a typical compositional feature of Frans Hals or Johannes Verspronck, this style was emulated by the mid 1630s by Amsterdam portraitists and also adapted by artists of West-Frisian region. Whilst Rudi Ekkart proposed Jan van Teylingen (1592-1654) as a possible artist of the Glemham portrait, Sabine Craft-Giepmans has suggested Jacques or Jacob Waben since the Glemham portrait fits better stylistically into the known oeuvre of Jacques or Jacob Waben.

The Westfries Museum in Hoorn keeps a number of comparable paintings by Waben. This attribution to Waben makes the traditional identification of the sitter very unlikely. The portrait most likely does not depict a member of the Edgar Family but rather a wealthy citizen of Hoorn.

We are grateful to Sabine Craft-Giepmans and Rudi Ekkart for their help in cataloguing the present painting