Portrait of a Man 1648

Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen the Elder’s 1648 “Portrait of a Man” depicts a seated man wearing a black coat with white collar and cuffs. The subject’s hand rests on a piece of fabric that is partly visible in the lower right corner. The painting, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, captures a formal and composed expression on the man’s face. The dark background emphasizes the subject, making the piece a quintessential example of the 17th-century Dutch portraiture style.