Portrait of a man, bust-length, in a ruff,
oil on panel, 49.8 x 40.8 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, circa 1750;
Austrian Imperial collections (a wax seal on the verso);
Comte de Cornelissen, Brussels;
sale, Galerie Saint-Luc, Brussels, 31 March 1891, lot 78;
M. Henri Hymans, Brussels, 1907;
Gustav Robert Paalem (1873–1945) collection, St. Rochusberg Palace near Sagan, 1922;
Carl Robert Lamm (1856–1938) collection, Näsby Palace, near Stockholm, 1923;
sale, American Art Association, New York, 21 February 1923, lot 615;
E. F. Svenson;

Literature:
R. Fischer, Peter Paul Rubens, Berlin, 1904, p. 61 (as P. P. Rubens);
F. M. Haberditzl, Die Lehrer des Rubens, in: Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, vol. 27, no. 1, 1907, pp. 216/217, ill. p. 214, fig. 43 (as a self-portrait of Peter Paul Rubens);
E. Verhaeren, Rubens, Leipzig, 1920, p. 80, cat. no. 45, fig. 45 (as a self-portrait of Peter Paul Rubens);
R. Oldenbourg, Rubens, Munich, 1922, pp. 137/138, p. 139, fig. 79 (as Peter Paul Rubens)

Attributions to Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck have been suggested for this portrait of a man whose forehead seems scarred. The superior quality of the painting and its provenance from the collections of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany suggest that it is the work of a prominent artist.