JOSEPH HEINTZ THE ELDER | Portrait of a young man, bust-length, wearing a dark coat

Private collection, Starnberg, Germany, until 2003;

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 26 January 2005, lot 21 (as Hans von Aachen), where acquired.

While known likenesses of Heintz, painted by himself and others, would appear to differ from the present portrait in certain characteristics,¹ the attitude and direct gaze of this sitter, turning towards the viewer over his right shoulder, bear many of the hallmarks of a self-portrait.

We are grateful to Dr Jürgen Zimmer for endorsing the attribution to Heintz on the basis of a digital image.

1 Compare, for example, Heintz’s Self Portrait with his Siblings, Kunstmuseum, Bern, inv. no. 243: http://www.sikart.ch/Werke.aspx?id=9896629; or Hans von Aachen’s Portrait of Joseph Heintz, Národní Galerie, Prague, inv. no. DO 4326: http://sbirky.ngprague.cz/en/dielo/CZE:NG.DO_4326