(Cento 1633–1715 Bologna)
Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length,
oil on canvas, 115 x 97 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection, since 1980

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

The present portrait is painted by Benedetto Gennari in the grand Baroque emphasising the sitter’s status, however, at present the sitter’s identity is unknown. Gennari depicted the gentlemen standing, slightly three-quarter-length, one hand on his hip and the other open in a gesture of conversation. He is wearing a black coat with bows over a white shirt. His ruddy face and pale eyes are framed by thick, long red hair and a large white collar with a tassel.

Benedetto Gennari became a celebrated portrait painter of the European aristocracy during his years outside Italy in France and England. His portraits were characterised by a careful study of the scene and costumes together with a delicate grace given to the sitters and the richness of costumes, influenced by sumptuous French classicism and the flattering portraiture that flourished between France and England in the seventeenth Century. The present portrait can be compared with, amongst others, the Portrait of Marie Anne De La Tour d’Auvergne, Duchesse de Bouillon, in the National Portrait Gallery, London (inv. no. 623).

Benedetto Gennari came from a family of painters and was born in Cento. His uncle, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino (1591-1666) was also his teacher. In 1643, the family moved to Bologna, where Guercino was already established. Gennari travelled to France in March 1672 and stayed for over sixteen months painting commissions for the nobility, including religious and mythological subjects and portraits. From the autumn of 1674, he moved to England where James, Duke of York and future king James II, had recently married the Italian Mary of Modena (1658-1718) and they became Gennari’s most important patrons. He also received important commissions from his predecessor King Charles II, producing over 135 paintings and mythological scenes for apartments in Windsor Castle.

At the beginning of the Revolution of 1688, Gennari left England and accompanied the court in exile to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he stayed until 1692. When he returned to Italy, his sophisticated style made his work popular. In 1710, he became a founding member of the Accademia Clementina in Bologna, devoted himself to teaching, and he was nominated director of the Scuola del Nudo.