Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon

This Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon by Jan van Eyck, dated around 1435, is one of the remarkable series of private portraits that Van Eyck produced for the prosperous merchant class of Bruges. Now in the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania, the work's presence in Eastern Europe reflects the dispersal of Netherlandish art through later collecting. The blue chaperon (hood) was a fashionable Burgundian head covering worn by men of means.

Van Eyck renders the sitter with his characteristic precision, using thin oil glazes to capture subtle tonal variations in the flesh and the rich blue fabric of the chaperon against a dark background that focuses attention on the face.