Portrait of a Man

Portrait of a Man — Sébastien Bourdon. 1657–58.

Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 104.2 × 88.1 cm (41 1/16 × 34 11/16 in.); Framed: 125.8 × 139.1 cm (49 1/2 × 54 3/4 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

This portrait, at once elegant and direct, may be a remnant of a larger painting of the consuls, or civic administrators, of Montpellier, Sébastien Bourdon’s native city in the south of France. Bourdon returned there briefly in the midst of a career that included early years in Rome, successful activity in Paris, and a short stint at the Stockholm court of Queen Christina of Sweden from 1652 to 1653. The large, isolated swath of fabric on the left and the absence of the sitter’s left hand suggest that it was cut from Bourdon’s group portrait.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.