UNKNOWN MASTER, Flemish
(active 1470s in Bruges)

Portrait of Louis of Gruuthuse

1472-82
Oil on oak panel, 34,2 x 22,8 cm
Groeninge Museum, Bruges

This court portrait shows the Bruges counsellor and chamberlain of Philip the Good, Louis of Gruuthuse (Louis de Bruges). This genre developed primarily in Brabant and the models were undoubtedly copied several times in other centres for official use. Gruuthuse's portrait is usually attributed, though with some reservation, to the Master of the Portraits of Princes.

The portrait is the right panel of a diptych, in original frame with Gruuthuse's motto 'plus est en vous'. The left panel probably represented the Virgin and Child.