Portrait of a man, half-length, in a broad-brimmed hat

Govaert Flinck received his artistic training in Leeuwarden under Lambert Jacobsz before moving to Amsterdam in 1633 to work in the studio of Rembrandt. Rembrandt's impact on his art was decisive and when Flinck emerged from the workshop as an independent artist three years later, his repertoire of landscapes, history paintings, tronies and portraits was closely based on the work of his master. It was for his portraits that Flinck was particularly admired, moving Joachim Sandrart to remark in 1675 that while they followed Rembrandt's manner, they were 'more felicitous in the exactness and in the pleasing quality of the portrayal' (see J. von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie der Bau-, Bild-, und Mahlerey-Künste.., 1675, ed. A.R. Pelzer, Munich, 1925; cited by J. Kelch, exhibition catalogue, Rembrandt - The Master and his Workshop, New Haven and London, 1992, p. 314).

This finely preserved example is stylistically indebted to Rembrandt's portraiture of the mid-1630s, which Flinck would have experienced at first hand. The directness of the observation and the fluent execution bring to mind portraits by Rembrandt such as the 41 year old Man (1633; Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum of Art) or Dirck Jansz. Pesser (1634; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), both of which were executed on oval panels, a format that Flinck used with particular alacrity. Flinck arguably reached his artistic zenith in the years around 1640 and from 1641 come such celebrated works as: Young Shepherdess (Paris, Musée du Louvre); Portrait of a man (Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum); and Young man with a plumed cap (Pommersfelden, Schönborn collection).