Portrait of a Man

Maes's Portrait of a Man from 1655 dates from his most artistically interesting period — the years immediately following his training with Rembrandt when he was simultaneously painting intimate domestic genre scenes and straightforward portraits in his master's manner. The mid-1650s were the period of his most admired works: The Eavesdropper, The Lacemaker, Young Woman at a Window — domestic interiors with moralizing undertones painted in the warm, intimate Rembrandtesque manner. The portrait practice ran alongside and supported this genre work, the same psychological observation that characterized the domestic scenes applied to formal commissioned portraiture.

The canvas portrait shows Maes's developing technique, with warm, Rembrandtesque lighting and careful facial modeling. The dark palette is enlivened by warm highlights on the face and white collar. The brushwork is more refined than Rembrandt's, pointing toward the polished elegance that would characterize Maes's mature portrait style.