Painting
The painting shows a tastefully dressed young man in a floppy hat seated in a chair facing right with his head at an angle looking at the viewer. We don't know the name of the man or the occasion for which it was painted, but the painting is probably a pendant to the portrait of a man in a black jacket, which it matches in shape, size, period, and position of the figures. If so, it was possibly once a pair of portraits of organisation owners, or two men who lived together, because Hals was quite consistent with his pendant wedding portraits; positioning the man on the left and the woman on the right. This allowed the light which always shines from the left in his paintings, to shine directly on the woman's face and not the man's. In this case however, the portrait on the left is painted in lighter tones than the portrait on the right. Possibly these pendant portraits were made to decorate a building, so that people who worked for them or visited the premises could know what the owners looked like.Provenance
The painting is one of the best documented paintings in Hals' oeuvre, documented by271. PORTRAIT OF A MAN SEATED. B. 105; M. 169. Half-length. He is turned three-quarters right, and looks at the spectator. His left hand is pressed to his side. He has a light-brown moustache and pointed beard, and dark-brown hair. He wears a broad- brimmed black hat of soft felt, a yellowish-grey coat, a close-fitting white collar edged with lace, and a white wristband on his right hand. Grey background. endant to 272. Panel, 9 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches. A copy was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1900, No. 32, and was in the sale: James Orrock, London, June 4, 1904, No. 265 (for 330 pounds and 15 schillings). Acquired from theWallenstein Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein () (24 September 1583 – 25 February 1634), also von Waldstein ( cs, Albrecht Václav Eusebius z Valdštejna), was a Bohemian military leader and statesman who fought on the Catholic side during the Th ...collection,Dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux' ..., 1741. In the Dresden Gallery, 1908 catalogue, No. 1358. 272. PORTRAIT OF A MAN. B. 106; M. 170. Half-length. His figure is in profile to the left; his head is turned three-quarters left. He looks at the spectator. The left hand, though not shown, is obviously pressed to his side. He has a slight fair moustache and imperial, and dark- brown curls. He wears a broad-brimmed black hat of soft felt and a black coat, showing the white shirt, with a close-fitting lace collar. endant to 271. Panel, 9 1/2 inches by 8 inches. Acquired from the Wallenstein collection, Dux, 1741. In the Dresden Gallery, 1908 catalogue, No. 1359.Hofstede de Groot
on "Portrait of a Man Seated" and "Portrait of a Man"; catalog numbers 271 & 272
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of a Man in a Yellowish-Gray Jacket Man in a Yellowish-Gray Jacket Paintings in Dresden 1633 paintings Portraits of men