(Paris 1590–1649)
Portrait of a Gentleman with his dog,
oil on canvas, 199.2 x 114.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Marchesi Crosa di Vergagni;
Private collection, London;
where purchased by the present owner

Exhibited:
London, Whitfield Fine Art, Old Masters in a Modern Light, 22 June – 17 July 2009;
London, Whitfield Fine Art, Caravaggio’s Friends & Foes, 27 May – 23 July 2010;
Paris, Musée Maillol, Artemisia 1593-1654, 14 March – 15 July 2012, no. 17

Literature:
Old Masters in a Modern Light, London 2009, pp. 94-98, (as Simon Vouet);
Caravaggio’s Friends & Foes, ed. by E. Clark/C. Whitfield, exhibition catalogue, London 2010, pp. 116-119 (as Simon Vouet);
P. Malgouyres, Charles Mellin et Simon Vouet en Italie, in: O. Bonfait, H. Rousteau-Chambon (eds.), Simon Vouet en Italie, Actes du colloque international, 6-8 December 2008, Musée des Beaux-Arts et Archives Départementales de Nantes, Rennes 2011, p. 81, fig. 8 (as attributed to Charles Mellin);
Y. Primarosa in: Artemisia 1593-1654, ed. by R. P. Ciardi/R. Contini/F. Solinas, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2012, pp. 100-101, no. 17 (as Simon Vouet);
Y. Primarosa, Nuove proposte per Charles Mellin pittore e disegnatore lorenese a Roma, in: Bollettino d’Arte, 16, October-November 2012, p. 74, note 59 (as Simon Vouet and workshop)

We are grateful to Erich Schleier for reconfirming the attribution of the present painting.

The present painting was exhibited as a fully autograph work by Simon Vouet in the 2012 Paris exhibition dedicated to Artemisia Gentileschi (see literature). The present work has been dated to the French artist’s Italian period of between 1612 and 1627.

The young Vouet was already celebrated as a portraitist by the time he reached Italy having demonstrating his talent, during his sojourn in Constantinople between 1611 and 1612 in the retinue of the French ambassador and he portrayed the Sultan. These achievements were mentioned by 17th century biographers André Félibien and Florent le Comte.

Once Vouet was established in Rome, his reputation allowed him to benefit from the protection of patrons including Cassiano dal Pozzo, the Barberini family and probably Francesco Maria del Monte, the protector of Caravaggio. Here the artist was exposed to the artistic revolution in the wake of Caravaggio, adopting both its extreme realism and its dramatic use of light. But his painting also absorbed influences from artistic currents in other Italian cities, such as Genoa, which he visited in 1621 and Parma, Bologna and Florence, which he probably visited on his return journey to Rome. During these years Vouet executed numerous portraits which demonstrate his significant ability in this field, including those of Giovan Carlo Doria in Genoa (now Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. RF 1979–20) and of other sitters that have remained anonymous, like the magnificent Portrait of a Youth (possibly Portrait of Aubin Vouet) in the Musée Réattu, Arles – characteristically, these are all half-figure portraits.

The present painting was most probably executed around 1622 after Vouet’s return from Genoa and it is therefore also an important record of this period in the artist’s oeuvre. The present canvas represents a young officer in full-length figure, his proud look is turned towards the viewer, his left hand is held against his hip, while the other rests on a helmet placed on a table. The latter is the only element enriching the otherwise sparse setting, which is defined by an ochre-grey background dominated solely by the subject of the portrait, and his small dog on the lower right, who faithfully looks up at his master. The subject’s elevated social rank, and his membership of the military hierarchy are underlined by his rich, probably ceremonial, dress, which consists of an elegant leather tunic decorated with red ribbons and ornamented by a gilded metal chest-plate. Stefan Krause of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, to whom we are grateful, has confirmed that the chest-plate dates to the early 17th century, pointing to similar French examples in various museums, including one in the Art Institute, Chicago, of gilded steel decorated with enamel (George F. Harding Collection, 1982.2242).

The young man in the present portrait also wears a soft ruff, of a type that was in vogue during the early decades of the 17th century, while the bandage on his right knee, which is distinctively sported by the subject, probably alludes specifically to a battle wound. Furthermore, he must also have belonged to the prestigious Ordine dello Speron d’Oro [Order of the Golden Spur], as is demonstrated by the detail on his right boot.

In this work Vouet adopts a type of composition – showing a full-figure standing beside a table with a helmet – that was used internationally during the first decades of the 17th century to such an extent, that it became codified as an official typology. For example, this compositional form was used by Artemisia Gentileschi in her Portrait of a Gonfaloniere (Musei Civici d’Arte Antica, Bologna), executed in Rome in 1622 when, probably through Cassiano dal Pozzo, she met Vouet with whom she shared a creative bond. Her portrait, like the present painting presently, shares many compositional analogies including the sitter’s pose and baren setting. The present Portrait of a Gentleman with his dog also compares to other magisterial works by Vouet himself, made during his Italian period. These include his Portrait of a Young Man in the Louvre and his Spadaccino in Brunswick (Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum), as well as his many self-portraits, such as that in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons. These are all intimate works which are brought to life by the artist’s brushwork: as apparent in the present painting demonstrating a soft and vibrant artistic style.

In the recent Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition catalogue Yuri Primarosa has suggested that despite the absence of any heraldic reference, or comparable inventory records, it is possible to identity of the present painting’s sitter, on the basis of his physiognomic similarities, to ‘M[onsieur] de Creil’ portrayed in a drawing by Claude Mellan. The sitter could be identified as Louis de Creil, Cardinal Federico Borromeo’s Rome correspondent, who is known to have been in contact with Simon Vouet himself, and according to a letter dated 1627, also had his portrait made on paper by Vouet.