Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat

With one arm akimbo and a penetrating, forthright stare, this dashing young man with his wide-brimmed hat exudes confidence and strength. His erect stance as well as the crisp, angular folds of his black satin cloak heighten the impression that he was a man of purpose. The portrait's strength also emanates from the artist's bold execution—the paint was applied thickly and with great verve and assurance. The composition, with the unknown sitter before a dark, almost black drapery pulled back to reveal the orange-red glow of an evening landscape, is extremely evocative, indicating that the artist was of the highest rank.

Various 17th-century masters have been linked to the portrait, among them Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), and Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), though none of these attributions is fully convincing. The Flemish artist Jan Cossiers (1600–1671 is also a possibility. Having trained with Cornelis de Vos (c. 1584/1585–1651), he would have had a solid foundation in portraiture. Notably, his manner of accenting the eyes in his drawings of children resembles that in the portrait at the Gallery. The style of the sitter's costume offers a dating in the mid-1630s. Prior to that time, doublets were tightly buttoned from collar to waist and fastened to the breeches with ties around the waist. Around 1630 styles changed and shirts were shown at the waist of the open doublet, as seen in the Gallery's portrait. The sitter's beard, mustache, and hairstyle were also fashionable in the early 1630s.