Portrait of a Man with His Hand on His Chest

The Artist: Corneille de Lyon, or Corneille de la Haye, was born in The Hague in the early sixteenth century. The location of his artistic training remains unknown, with both Antwerp and his native city being the likeliest candidates. We know Corneille was in Lyon by May 1533 because his friend Janus Secundus records meeting him there. It appears that Corneille’s connection to the French court, which also resided in Lyon in 1533, was established quickly and he was eventually given the honorary title peintre du roi. In 1547, he became a naturalized French citizen. In 1569, he and his family were compelled to renounce Protestantism. His marriage to Marguerite Fradin, the daughter of a Lyon printer, produced three children, two sons, and a daughter, all of whom took up their father’s profession.


Corneille was active over a period of five decades, painting many portraits of the nobility and bourgeoisie of Lyon. He used a consistent compositional formula, typified by his most securely attributed work, the Portrait of Pierre Aymeric (1534, Louvre, Paris), although some variations in style exist. Focusing primarily on his sitter’s face, Corneille created flattering likenesses that tend not to lavish detail on costume or environment. It appears that he may have worked from life as Corneille’s portraits rarely have a preliminary underdrawing and he did not compile a stock of drawings.


The Painting: We are face to face with a young man whose glinting eyes and slight smile imbue the painting with liveliness. This gentleman stands in front of a green background onto which shadows are painted to suggest depth. This unidentified sitter portrayed flatteringly in all likelihood, was probably a member of the Lyonnais bourgeoisie as evidenced by his costume. A black beret tilts jauntily at a slight angle off his head and his delicate cuffs and collars have fine black edging. Somewhat unusual for portraits by Corneille de Lyon is the pilled effect seen at the shoulders and arms of the man’s jacket where it borders the background, although this can also be identified in a few other examples included in De Groër’s monograph.[1]


Attribution and Dating: An assessment of the painting’s condition and technique is obscured by a thick, yellowed varnish layer. However, scholars have compared the portrait’s paint application favorably to other works attributed to Corneille.[2] Dendrochronology identified the panel support as walnut, a species of wood found in other paintings attributed to the artist.[3] Also in keeping with Corneille’s working methods, infrared reflectography revealed little to no underdrawing beneath the paint layers.[4] Sterling and Ainsworth proposed that the man’s gesture of placing his hand at his chest may reflect self-identification, indicating that the portrait is of Corneille himself.[5] Although tempting, this hypothesis remains impossible to substantiate. Details of the man’s facial hair and costume place the portrait in the 1540s, a dating corroborated by comparisons to other contemporary portraits by Corneille.[6]


　

Nenagh Hathaway, 2019


　

[1] See Refs., De Groër, 1996, pp. 176-77 (cat. no. 74); 197-198 (cat. no. 107).

[2] See Refs., Sterling and Ainsworth, 1998, pp. 26-28.

[3] Lorne Campbell, The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings with French Paintings Before 1600. Vol. 2. London, 2014, pp. 726-733.

[4] This is consistent with Corneille’s technique as observed in the National Gallery of London’s portraits. Ibid.

[5] The authors also note that this gesticulation is unique among Corneille’s surviving portraits. See Refs., Sterling and Ainsworth, 1998, p. 28.

[6] Ibid.


　

　

References


Walter W. S. Cook. "Spanish and French Paintings in the Lehman Collection." 1924, p. 67, pl. 53, fig. 19.


Robert Lehman.　The Philip Lehman Collection, New York: Paintings. Paris, 1928,　no. 95.


Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born in or before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1980, p. 30, ill. p. 477.


Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 354, ill. (as attributed to Corneille de Lyon).


Anne Dubois de Groër. Corneille de La Haye dit Corneille de Lyon. Paris, 1996, p. 261. Listed under section ADD-I, called Inconnu.


Charles Sterling and Maryan W. Ainsworth　in　The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 2,　Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-Century European Paintings. New York, 1998,　pp. 26-28, ill. p. 27.


　

Collection Sir John Stromberry, London, 1862; Collection John Heugh, London; Lèopold Goldschmidt, Paris; Count de Sartiges, Paris; [F. Kleinberger Galleries, Paris and New York]. Durlacher, London, 1926; Acquired by Philip Lehman from Kleinberger in July 1912.