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A pale-skinned man with close-cropped, dark hair kneels near two steps leading from our interior space to a distant landscape in this vertical painting. He faces our right, almost in profile, and his dark hairline sits high on his forehead. He looks off to our right with hazel eyes over a long nose and a pale mouth. His voluminous black robe is trimmed with brown fur, and a red scarf drapes over his near shoulder. Two wooden clogs with black straps lie nearby, to our left. The floor under him is checkered in tan and ginger brown. Just beyond him are two brick-red steps flanked by a gray doorway to our right and a wall to our left. A rectangular shield, curved like a piece of paper curling forward, hangs from a strap on the wall to our left. The top half of the shield is scarlet red, and the bottom has gold, leafy designs against a caramel-brown background. The steps lead to an open courtyard. A three-story, brick building rises on the left side with an open wooden door at the ground level and two rows of windows above. Beyond a section of a crenellated brick wall is a hilly landscape studded with trees. The sky above fades from pale blue along the top edge of the painting to nearly white along the horizon.

Petrus Christus

Portrait of a Male Donor, c. 1455

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 39

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 42 x 21.2 cm (16 9/16 x 8 3/8 in.)

framed: 54.3 x 35.5 x 9.2 cm (21 3/8 x 14 x 3 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.10

Artists / Makers

Petrus Christus (artist) Netherlandish, active 1444 - 1475/1476

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Possibly Private Collection, Genoa.[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence, by 1937);[2] purchased 1937 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] There is no basis for the Genovese provenance of the panels beyond an unattributed statement in the NGA curatorial file from the Kress Foundation. No donor portraits or triptych positively identifiable with 1961.9.10 and 1961.9.11 are listed in Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, Instruzione de quanto puo' vedersi di più bello in Genova in pittura, scultura ed architettura, 3 vols. (Genoa, 1780), or Federigo Alizeri, Guida artistica per la Città de Genova, 2 vols. (Genoa, 1846).

[2] The Count lived in Rome until 1931.

[3] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1688.

Associated Names

Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Private Collection (NGA Former Owner)

Exhibition History

1961: Art Tresures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1961-1962, no. 63, repro.

1994: Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, no. 12, repro.

2001: Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's 'Ginevra de' Benci' and Renaissance Portraits of Women, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001-2002, no. 14A, color repro.

2002: Jan van Eyck, de Vlaamse Primitieven en het Zuiden [Jan van Eyck, Early Netherlandish Painting and Southern Europe], Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 2002, no. 12, fig. 125 (with NGA 1961.9.11), repro. (catalogue titled The Age of Van Eyck, 1430-1530: The Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting).

2005: The Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 2005-2006, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).

Technical Summary

Wooden strips, appx. 0.5 cm wide, were attached to all sides of the original oak panel, which has been planed down, mounted on a thin layer of softwood, and cradled. The top strip has now been removed. The panel has no unpainted edges and may have been trimmed very slightly within the painted area on all four sides. The painting was restored by Stephen Pichetto about 1938. The paint surface is, in general, in very good condition. There is some scattered repainting along the crackle pattern in the robe and on the right side of the donor's face, as well as larger areas of thin repaint along the right edge of the painting, in the door sill, and to the right of the donor's sleeve. Retouching to the right of the donor's face appears to mask traces of an earlier contour here.

Bibliography

1924: Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei 14 vols. 1924-1937. Leiden, 1937: 14:78-79. (English ed., 14 vols., 1967-1976. Leiden, 1967: 1:104, 110, pl. 104.)

1938: Burroughs, Alan. Art Criticism from a Laboratory. Boston, 1938: 250.

1946: Friedländer, Max J. "The Death of the Virgin by Petrus Christus." The Burlington Magazine 88 (1946): 159, pls. IIA-B .

1948: Puyvelde, Leo van. The Flemish Primitives. Brussels, 1948: 27, pl. 53.

1951: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces." Art News 50 no. 7 (November 1951): 100-101, repro. 103.

1951: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 170, no. 75, repro.

1952: Bazin, Germain. "Petrus Christus et les rapports entre l'Italie et la Flandre au milieu du XVe siècle." La Revue des Arts 2 (1952): 199, 208.

1952: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 100-101, repro. 103

1953: Panofsky Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1953: 1:313, 430-431, 491.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 58.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 278, repro., as A Donor.

1960: Broadley Hugh T. Flemish Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 5 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 5, 20-21, color repro.

1961: Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 72, 208, fig. 63.

1962: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 52, color repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 304, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 27.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:78-79, color repro.

1968: Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting, from Pucelle to Bruegel: Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries. New York, 1968: 133, fig. 158.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 106, 108, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 20, repro.

1968: Ward, John L. "A New Look at the Friedsam Annunciation." The Art Bulletin 50, no. 2 (June 1968): 187.

1969: Blum, Shirley Neilsen. Early Netherlandish Triptychs. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969: 117.

1970: Lane, Barbara G. "Petrus Christus: A Reconstructed Triptych with an Italian Motif." The Art Bulletin 52, no. 4 (December 1970): 390-393, figs. 1, 3.

1971: Schabacker, Peter H., and Barbara G. Lane. Exchange of Letters. The Art Bulletin 53, no. 2 (June 1971): 281-283.

1972: Schabacker, Peter H. Review of Rogier van der Weyden by Martin Davies. In The Art Quarterly 35 (1972): 424.

1974: Schabacker, Peter H. Petrus Christus. Utrecht, 1974: 51, 55, 108-109, 112-114, 120, 136, no. 18, fig. 18.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 68, repro.

1975: Gellman, Lola B. Review of Petrus Christus by Peter H. Christus by Peter H. Schabacker. In Simiolus 8 (1975/1976): 33.

1975: Upton, Joel M. "Devotional Imagery and Style in the Washington Nativity by Petrus Christus." Studies in the History of Art 7 (1975): 52, fig. 2.

1976: Sterling, Charles. "Tableaux espagnols et un chef d'oeuvre portugais méconnus du XVe siècle." Acats del XXIII congreso internacional de hisoria del arte. ... Granada, 1973. 3 vols. Granada, 1976: 1:501-502, fig. 6.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 51-54, fig. 48, text fig. 17, as Donor.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Review of Petrus Christus by Peter H. Schabacker. In Art Bulletin 59 (1977): 141.

1978: Panhans-Bühler, Ursula. Eklektizismus und Originalität im Werk des Petrus Christus. Vienna, 1978: 118-123, fig. 75.

1979: Campbell, Lorne. Review of Eklektizismus und Originalität im Werk des Petrus Christus by Ursula Panhans-Bühler. Burlington Magazine 121, no. 921 (December 1979): 802.

1979: Collier, James M. "The Kansas City Petrus Christus: Its Importance and Dating." The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin 5, no. 5 (September 1979): 27, 31, 36, fig. 6.

1980: Paolini, Maria Grazia. "Problemi antonelliani Rapporti tra pittura fiamminga e italiana." Storia dell'arte 38-40 (1980): 164-165.

1980: Scott, Margaret. The History of Dress Series. Late Gothic Europe, 1400-1500. London, 1980: 165, 241, fig. 96, pls. 6-7.

1981: Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. "A Newly Discovered Eyckian St. John the Baptist in a Landscape." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67 (1981): 115, 118.

1984: Eisler, Colin T. "A Nativity Signed PETRUS XPI ME FECIT 1452." In Liber Amicorum Herman Liebaers. Brussels, 1984: 465.

1984: Sterling, Charles. "A la recherche des oeuvres de Zanetto Bugatto: une nouvelle piste." In Scritti di storia dell'arte in onore di Federico Zeri. 2 vols. Milan, 1984: 1:177.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. Washington, 1984: 122, no. 106, color repro., as A Donor and His Wife.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 88, repro.

1986: Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 49-55, repro. 50.

1995: Gellman, Lola B. "Two Lost Portraits by Petrus Christus." in Maryan Ainsworth, ed. ) Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. New York and Begium, 1995:107, 108.

2001: Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002: no. 14a.

2002: Parma, Elena. "Genoa--Gateway to the South." In Borchert, Till-Holger. The Age of Van Eyck: The Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting 1430-1530. Exh. cat. Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 2002. London, 2002: 106, fig. 125.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 46, no. 33, color repro.

2005: Schmidt, Peter. "The Multiple Image: The Beginnings of Printmaking, Between Old Theories and New Approaches." In The Origins of European Printmaking Exh. cat. Washington 2005. Edited by Peter Parshall and Rainer Schoch. New Haven, 2005: 41-42, color fig. 1.

2012: Jacobs, Lynn F. Opening Doors: The Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted. University Park, Pa., 2012: 122-125, fig. 46.