Full title | A Man |
---|---|
Artist | Robert Campin |
Artist dates | 1378/9 - 1444 |
Series | A Man and a Woman |
Date made | about 1435 |
Medium and support | Oil with egg tempera on oak |
Dimensions | 40.7 x 28.1 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1860 |
Inventory number | NG653.1 |
Location | Room 63 |
Art route(s) | A |
Collection | Main Collection |
This striking portrait of a man in a red hat forms a pair with Campin’s A Woman – the sitters were clearly husband and wife. We do not know who they were, but their clothes suggest they were prosperous townsfolk, perhaps from Tournai where Campin lived and worked.
Campin has arranged the older husband’s clothes and face to convey his character: he seems world-weary, uncertain and disillusioned. His face is dimly lit and his skin sags beneath his jaw and forms crow’s feet around his dull eyes. He slouches. His head is off centre, and his hat has been brought forward so it seems to press down on his head.
Instead of looking out at us he gazes across at his wife. The shadows cast on his face stress the falling lines of the pattern Campin has created. His hands are not included, perhaps because they would have been at odds with this pattern.
This striking portrait of a man in a red hat forms a pair with Campin’s A Woman – the sitters were clearly husband and wife. We have no clues to their identity, but their clothes suggest they were relatively prosperous townspeople. The man’s red headdress, or chaperon, consists of several parts: a bourrelet (a padded ring), part of which is visible above his forehead; a cornette (the long, scarf-like tail) which has been wound round the bourrelet; and a patte (the shoulder cape), which hangs over his left shoulder, its seam clearly shown.
The face is so lifelike, the level of detail so astonishing and the tiny tonal transitions in skin and fabric so carefully observed that we are almost unaware of how Campin has ordered the man’s clothes and features to convey his character. His forehead creases in a frown which narrows his eyes, and the corners of his mouth and eyes curve resolutely downwards. Minute variations in colour suggest reddened skin and wrinkles. His skin sags beneath his jaw and forms crow’s feet around his eyes, which have only the smallest of catchlights. He slouches and his head is off centre; he does not dominate the composition as his wife does.
Although both figures are silhouetted against flat black backgrounds, they are lit in different ways. Campin must have intended to show different schemes of lighting and rearranged his studio accordingly at all their sittings. The shadows cast on the man’s face stress the falling lines of the pattern Campin created; his hands are not included, perhaps because they would have been at odds with this pattern. His clothes echo the drooping lines of his face, and he seems world-weary, uncertain and disillusioned. His hat has been brought forward so it seems to press down on his head, and its scarves to flatten his bulk – unlike the hat in Jan van Eyck’s assertive self portrait, which flies confidently upwards.
Infrared reflectography has shown that Campin didn't always follow exactly the underdrawing when painting, but subtly adjusted the compositions to make them more formal and abstract. The contours of the man’s face below his left cheekbone and opposite his mouth are drawn to the left of the painted contours. The seam between his collar and his robe was underdrawn as a fairly broad dark line and there are other lines in the collars which may be underdrawing. Areas of hatching, in short, parallel, evenly spaced strokes indicated areas of light and shade.
The artist’s interest in facial expression and emotion and the use of pattern to increase emotional effect are comparable with other works thought to be by Campin, and these portraits are therefore attributed to him. The clothes are in the fashion of about 1430 and the dendrochronological evidence suggests a date around or after 1435.
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A Man and a Woman
A man and a woman, clearly husband and wife, gaze towards each other. We don‘t know who they were, but their clothes, which are not excessively rich, suggest that they were relatively prosperous townspeople. The clarity and credibility of these portraits, which were designed as a pair, is astonishing – but they do more than reflect how the sitters looked.
Campin’s ability to convey textures of skin, fur and fabric means that we are not immediately aware of the skill with which he arranged the sitters’ clothes and even their features. These are highly ordered geometric compositions devised to show us what the couple were like: an older, world-weary man and a bright, optimistic young woman. The man slouches and the drooping lines of his face are echoed by his clothes; the woman’s skin is smooth, her eyes are bright and her features and clothes form rising lines.
A man and a woman, clearly husband and wife, gaze towards each other. We don‘t know who they were, but their clothes, which are not excessively rich, suggest that they were relatively prosperous townspeople.
The portraits were certainly designed as a pair. The oak boards of the supports are from the same tree; the measurements of the painted surfaces are to a millimetre the same; both have traces of the same green pigments, evidently from the original frame, at their edges; the backs of both are marbled. It is possible that they were originally hinged together to form a diptych, though any evidence of this has been lost with the original frame.
These are some of the most powerful portraits to survive from the early Renaissance, and their clarity and credibility is astonishing. Though the heads have been emphasised – they are slightly enlarged in comparison with the bodies – these are obviously convincing representations of the man and woman.
But Campin’s ability to convey the textures of skin, fur and fabric means that we are not immediately aware of the artifice with which he arranged the sitters’ clothes, and even their features. The portraits aren't just representations of how the couple looked, they are highly ordered geometric compositions devised to show us what they were like: an older, world-weary man and a bright, optimistic young woman. An incredibly skilful draughtsman, Campin has done this using patterns. The man’s sagging skin, his furrowed brow and the downward turning lines at the corner of his mouth are echoed in the lines of his clothes, while the woman’s face and clothes make a pattern of upward turning lines. Her hands, brought upwards into her portrait, give the work even more lift.
Campin has, however, taken care to ensure that the portraits work well together. Both faces are strongly lit, so they stand out against the flat black background. Both are shown at a three-quarters angle, looking inwards towards one another. The man’s head is slightly larger, but Campin has balanced this by giving his wife a larger headdress and including her hands. The bold, limited colour scheme and careful composition unites the pictures. The red tail of his hat falls in diagonal lines to meet her white veils, making a strong visual link between the two paintings.
The narrow strips of bare wood would have been covered by the frame. Framed panels would have been made by professional joiners: the frames were built around the panels before the grounds were laid across both frames and panels, possibly by the artist. In these two portraits, the frames were decorated after the pictures had been completed. They appear to have been marbled in green and red. The backs were also marbled, in red and brown, but are very damaged. Paintings were not always hung on walls at the time and so the backs were sometimes decorated too.


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