Portrait of a Man

The sitter of this fine small portrait on copper wears a "Japanese robe." This type of garments, which were usually made of Chinese or Indian silk, were imported mostly from Japan to the Netherlands by the East India Company (VOC) and are shown often in fashionable portraits of men, and in genre interiors dating from about 1665 onward. An almost identical robe and scarf are seen, for example, in The Chess Players of about 1670 by Cornelis de Man.