Lot 167: Paris Bordone , Treviso bapt 1500 -1571 Venice portrait of a bearded man, three-quarter length, wearing a black fur-lined coat, holding a cap in his right hand oil on canvas, in a carved and gilt wood frame

remains of an inscription lower right: AETATIS / ANNO / ...III oil on canvas, in a carved and gilt wood frame

measurements note 94.5 by 78 cm.; 37 1/8 by 30 5/8 in.

G. Canova, Paris Bordon, Venice 1964, p. 119, reproduced plate 145;
C. Pirovano, Paris Bordon, exhibition catalogue,Venice 1984, p. 137, cat.no. 52;
G. Mariani Canova, "Paris Bordon: problematiche cronologiche", in Paris Bordone e il suo tempo, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Treviso, 28-30 October 1985, 1987, p. 157, cat. no. 50, reproduced.

Private Collection, Florence;
With A. Ruck, London by July 1921;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 10 July 1925, lot 143, for 99 Guineas to 'Dale';
With Galerie van Diemen & Co, Berlin by 1928;
Their forced liquidation sale, Berlin, Paul Graupe, 25-26 January 1935, vol. I, lot 8;
Sale, Stockholm, H. Bukowski, 14 December 1935, lot 46;
With P. de Boer, Amsterdam;
Dienststelle Mühlmann, The Hague;
Schmidt, The Hague;
On loan from the ICN to the residence of the Commissioner of South-Holland, Wassenaar (30th October 1956 until 1984);
Netherlands Art Property Collection, inv. no. NK1771;
Restituted to the heirs of Jakob & Rosa Oppenheimer in 2008

PROPERTY FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF JAKOB AND ROSA OPPENHEIMER
Initially the young Bordone trained under Titian but by 1518 he was already registered as an independent master, apparently having been eased out of Titian's workshop due to the latter's distrust of a student who could imitate his style with such skill. He was much sought after outside of Italy, especially by the royalty of France, both for his religious paintings and for his portraits, especially those of women.υ1

The present work belongs to Bordone's later phase, in which he had perhaps lost some of his more youthful vigour and spontaneity. At the time of the Van Diemen sale in 1935 the catalogue entry states that the inscription lower right read: AETATIS /ANNO / XXXIII and that the work was signed and dated lower left: O.P.B. 1561. A note on the Provenance:
This late portrait by Bordone was until recently with the Netherlands Art Property Collection and has now been restituted to the heirs of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer. The Oppenheimers were the owners of the well-known Galerie Van Diemen & Co. in Berlin (see Provenance). In 1933, they escaped Germany after Adolf Hitler had become Chancellor, and made for France, where Jakob died in 1941. Rosa was deported to her death at Auschwitz in 1943. Their three children survived the Second World War.


1. See the Portrait of a Lady sold in these Rooms, 9 July 2008, lot 70.