Michiel Coxcie, A Man with a Skull

This seemingly straightforward portrait was one of the National Gallery’s most controversial purchases of the nineteenth century. Bought in 1845 as ‘the Gallery’s first Holbein’, its authenticity was quickly cast into doubt and recent analysis shows that the panel actually postdates Holbein’s death.

We aren‘t sure who the sitter is, but the coat of arms in the upper corner suggests he came from Brussels or Leuven or the surrounding area, and was a member of the Heverlee family. His jewellery and garments show that he was wealthy but he seems not to have bothered to follow the latest trends in haircuts, beards, furs and clothes. His hand rests on a skull, a memento mori. Skulls as reminders of death appear in a number of sixteenth-century portraits, such as A Man with Pansies and a Skull and, most famously, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve (’The Ambassadors‘).

In 1845 a French dealer sold – and the National Gallery bought – the painting as a work by Holbein, dated to 1549 by an inscription (it was not yet known that the artist died in 1543). At this time Holbein was regarded as the first great British artist, having worked for many years in England. There were no paintings by him in our collection so the acquisition was of national significance. The gallery paid 600 guineas for it – the same price paid in 1842 for Portrait of Giovanni(?) Arnolfini and his Wife. The inscription was almost immediately recognised as false and removed. Critics began to question the attribution, as the portrait lacked the quality of a genuine work by Holbein.

It was claimed in the press that the dealer had bought the painting for £30 and that it had even been on the market previously for £20. The ’Holbein' label was dropped, and over the next century and a half various tentative attributions were made. It was even suggested that the painting was a fake.

In 1993, dendrochronological analysis of the panel – a method of determining the age of a piece of wood by analysing its pattern of rings – showed that the latest ring in the boards of the panel was formed in 1543. Allowing time for the wood to season suggests a date of 1560 or later. At that time Michiel Coxcie was the most important portrait painter working in Brussels, and stylistic comparison with his other paintings confirms that he was the artist.