Portrait of a Man, identified as Anne de Montmorency (1493 - 1567)

This portrait, identified as Anne de Montmorency, dates to around 1554. If correctly identified, the sitter was the Constable of France—the kingdom's highest military officer and one of the most powerful men in sixteenth-century France. Montmorency dominated French politics for decades under Francis I and Henry II. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays small-scale portraits on wood panel with distinctive colored grounds (often blue-green or red), intimate likeness combined with simplified background, precise, unidealized characterization.

The portrait captures what appears to be a figure of authority and experience, rendered with Corneille's characteristic precision. The mature sitter's features are modeled with careful attention to the signs of age and character.