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Title:Monsieur de Bellefourière
Artist:French Painter (dated 1521)
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:Overall, with arched top and engaged frame, 18 3/8 x 13 1/8 in. (46.7 x 33.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Object Number:32.100.114
Inscription: Dated and inscribed: (top) ·1521·; (bottom, on frame) monsieur:69:de:bellefouriere
Monsieur Thiébault-Sisson, Paris (in 1904, as by ?Jean Perreal); Michael Friedsam, New York (by 1927–d. 1931, as by Perreal)
Paris. Musée du Louvre. "Exposition des primitifs français," April 12–July 14, 1904, no. 147 (as by "Jean Perréal?," lent by M. Thiébault-Sisson, Paris).
New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Loan Exhibition of French Primitives and Objects of Art," October 17–November 12, 1927, no. 43 (as by Jean Perréal, lent by Michael Friedsam).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.
Henri Bouchot inExposition des primitifs français. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1904, p. 65, no. 147, as by "Jean Perréal?".
Louis Dimier. Histoire de la peinture de portrait en France au XVIe siècle. Vol. 2, Paris, 1925, p. 338, no. 6, as the work of an unknown French artist.
Louis Réau inCatalogue of a Loan Exhibition of French Primitives. Exh. cat., New York. New York, 1927, p. 106, no. 43, ill., as by Jean Perréal.
Louis Réau in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 205, tentatively attributes it to Jean Perréal.
Katharine Grant Sterne. "The French Primitives in the Friedsam Collection." Parnassus 4 (January 1932), p. 8, attributes it to Jean Perréal, possibly the Master of Moulins.
Maurice H. Goldblatt. "Jean Perréal: Thirty Portraits Identified—I." Connoisseur 123 (March 1949), p. 9, ill.
Maurice H. Goldblatt. "Jean Perréal—II: Thirty-five Portraits Identified." Connoisseur 123 (June 1949), p. 95.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 37.
Charles Sterling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. Vol. 1, XV–XVIII Centuries. Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 24–26, ill., attributes it to an "Unknown Painter, 1521"; believes the 69 in the inscription was added somewhat later and must indicate the sitter's age; thinks the date 1521 and the indistinct coat of arms painted on the background were also later additions, although the date corresponds with the costume and style of the painting.
Maurice H. Goldblatt. Deux grands maîtres français: Le Maître de Moulins identifié; Jean Perréal, 40 portraits identifiés. Paris, 1961, p. 70, no. 14, ill. [reprinted from Ref. Goldblatt 1949], attributes it to Jean Perréal.
Charles Sterling. "Une peinture certaine de Pérreal enfin retrouvée." L'Oeil nos. 103–4 (July–August 1963), p. 11, pl. 18, notes that in spite of considerable wear from old restorations, it is still one of the most impressive French portraits from the beginning of the 16th century.
Charles Sterling. "Un portrait inconnu par Jean Clouet." Studies in Renaissance & Baroque Art Presented to Anthony Blunt on his 60th Birthday. London, 1967, p. 90.
Anthony Blunt. Art and Architecture in France, 1500 to 1700. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1953]. Baltimore, 1970, p. 250 n. 61, finds Sterling's (1963) attributions of large-scale portraits, including the present work, to Perréal unconvincing.
Peter Mellen. Jean Clouet: Complete Edition of the Drawings, Miniatures, and Paintings. London, 1971, pp. 57, 77 n. 90, considers the portraits of Charles VIII, Pierre Sala, and Anne of Brittany the only ones that can be attributed to Perréal with any certainty; notes that most of the paintings given to this artist by Sterling [see Ref. 1963] are characteristic of his style but probably not by him.
Charles Sterling? inSpätmittelalter und beginnende Neuzeit. Ed. Jan Bialostocki. Berlin, 1972, p. 187.
Katharine Baetjer. "Pleasures and Problems of Early French Painting." Apollo 106 (November 1977), pp. 346–47, ill.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 352, ill. p. 351.
Alexandra Zvereva. Portraits dessinés de la cour des Valois: Les Clouet de Catherine de Médicis. Paris, 2011, p. 387, under no. DI.8.
Cécile Scailliérez inFrançois Ier et l'art des Pays-Bas. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2017, p. 194 n. 8, p. 195.
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