Attributed to Guillaume Courtois, called Guglielmo Cortese

Clotworthy Skeffington (1715-1757), 1st Earl of Massereene, or his son, Clotworthy Skeffington (1742-1805), 2nd Earl of Massereene;

Mrs. Kleykamp, The Hague, by 1923;

From whom acquired by Howard Young Galleries, December 1922;

With Knoedler & Company, New York, by 1997;

From whom acquired by a private collector;

Thereafter acquired by the present collector.

W.R. Valentiner, Frans Hals, Des Meisters Gemälde in 322 Abblindungen, Stuttgart and Berlin 1923, p. 255, reproduced (as Hals, circa 1650-1652);

C. Grimm and E.C. Montagni, L'opera completa di Frans Hals, Milan 1974, p. 112, cat. no. 239, reproduced (as Attributed to Hals).

Although attributed to Frans Hals in the first half of the twentieth century, the present portrait was almost certainly executed by a French artist working in Italy who drew inspiration from the Haarlem painter's enlivening loose brushwork. Francesco Petrucci recently suggested the work was executed by the French Cortonesque painter Guillaume Courtois, known as il Borgognone. Indeed, it bears striking similarities with his Allegorical Self-Portrait (Milan, Koelliker collection) and Portrait of a Physician, Possibly Giovanni Guglielmo Riva (sold Sotheby's, London, 7 July 2022, lot 187).¹

¹ For the former, see Francesco Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma, Rome 2010, vol. II, p. 304, cat. no. 2, reproduced.