Lot 1035 Dα

The painter Johann de Pay was born in Riedlingen on the southernmost edge of the Swabian Jura. He is documented as living with relatives in Antwerp in 1634, where he must have studied the works of the great Flemish painters of his era, as their work had an extraordinary influence on his style. He settled in Munich in 1637 and there became a court painter. He received numerous commissions, but mainly painted portraits. The sitter of the present work, an elegant gentleman in a fashionable all-black outfit with a contrasting white shirt and collar, may have been a member of the Munich court. The Flemish influence - especially that of Van Dyck - is unmistakeable in this depiction.