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Portrait of a Man
Thomas Hudson1750
Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom
The open collar and the hand resting on a portrait bust suggest that this man might be an artist. Furthermore, the portrait has a directness and concentration that suggest self-portraiture.
Another portrait, apparently of the same man, is recorded in a drawing by George Vertue in the British Museum. Vertue identifies this other portrait as being of the Royalist artist Isaac Fuller (died 1672).
This may well, therefore, be an early self-portrait by Fuller. Recent technical analysis has revealed that the brown background behind the sitter’s head was originally a blue sky.
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Details
- Title: Portrait of a Man
- Creator Lifespan: 1701 - 1779
- Date: 1750
- Physical Dimensions: w1020 x h1273 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil
- Work Nationality: British
- Support: Canvas
- Provenance: Stanmore Hall (Middlesex), Robert Hollond; his sale, London, Christie's, 27 Apr. 1889, lot 33 (ÔA Gentleman in Court Dress'). Bt Fairfax Murray; Charles Fairfax Murray; Fairfax Murray Gift, 1911.
- Inscriptions: T Hudson Pinxit [TH in monogram]
- Further Information: This is possibly a fragment of a larger portrait. The sitter was formerly identified as the playwright Nathaniel Lee (1649?-92); however, this would imply a date for the portrait of c.1675, whereas the picture probably dates from the 1640s. The fact that he rests his hand on a portrait bust suggests that he could be an artist. M. Rogers (letters on file, 1997) draws attention to portraits of possibly the same man in the Garrick Club and the Clarke Library, University of Los Angeles. Of these, the latter is recorded in a drawing by Vertue in the British Museum, with an inscription in Vertue's hand identifying the original as a self-portrait by Isaac Fuller (q.v.).
- Artist: Hudson, Thomas
- Acquisition Method: Fairfax Murray, Charles (Gift, 1911)
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