Portrait of a Man

Artist Hans Mielich German, 1516–1573

Date1543

MediumOil on panel

Dimensions25 1/2 x 19 in. (64.8 x 48.3 cm)
Frame: 31 3/4 x 25 1/2 in. (80.6 x 64.8 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.140

On View

Not on view

Label Text
Looking all of his sixty-two years, the sitter in this portrait by Hans Mielich would probably feel comfortable among the lower classes that were soon to become popular subjects in the art of northern Europe. He wears the simple clothing of a laborer or craftsman, including an apron, cap with ear flaps, and a thin leather belt. His appearance is in marked contrast to the more traditional portrait type that had developed during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (as seen in the more refined and formal portrait by Anthonis Mor, also in the Museum's collection). A possible reason for the execution of such a down-to-earth portrait is that the sitter may have been a friend of the painter.ProvenanceCollection of the Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna, 1863 to after 1943.Published ReferencesLiechtenstein Gallery, inventory catalogues, 1863, no. 706.

Wilhelm von Bode, Die Fuerstlich Lichtensteinsche Galerie in Wien (1896), 126.

Bernhard Hermann Roettger, Der Maler Hans Mielich (Munich: 1925), no. 6.

Liechtenstein Catalogue, 1925.

Erich von Strohmer, Die Gemäldegalerie des Fürsten Liechtenstein in Wien (Vienna: Wilhelm Braumuller, 1938 and 1943), 103, illus. fig. 78.

Art News (April 1956), 50, illus.

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 170, illus. (b-w).

Exhibition Number One from the Permanent Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1970), 38, illus. (b-w) 39.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 169.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 151.

Kurt Löcher, Hans Mielich: 1516-1573 (Munich and Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2002), 50, illus. (color) 130, fig. 18.

Dennis P. Weller, entry for Portrait of a Man, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 172, illus. (color) 173.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Exhibition Number One from the Permanent Collection,” October 1970, 38, illus. (b-w) 39. Object Rights Statement

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) makes images of its collection available online to support research and scholarship and to inform and educate the public. Certain works of art, as well as the photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by the NCMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains with the applicant. To request images and/or permissions from the NCMA, please complete our online request form.