Portrait of a Man (after Titian)
- Artist: David Teniers II
- Date: 1650-56
- Medium: oil on panel
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Portrait of a Man (after Titian)” by David Teniers II. Painted between 1650 and 1656 in oil on panel, it belongs to a series of small copies Teniers produced in preparation for his landmark 1660 publication, the *Theatrum Pictorium*. That work was the first printed and illustrated catalogue of a major collection, the holdings of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, governor of the Southern Netherlands from 1646 to 1656. The Archduke had gathered more than 1,300 paintings, many of them Italian Renaissance masterpieces.
Teniers copied 243 of these works directly from the originals onto tiny wooden panels, then sent the copies to specialist engravers who reproduced them as prints for the catalogue. The version you’re looking at is one of only fourteen such copies in public collections, the largest number held by the Courtauld. These panels are invaluable records of paintings that have since been altered or lost, and they showcase Teniers’ remarkable skill and the burgeoning 17th‑century fascination with the art of earlier centuries.
See it in person
Portrait of a Man (after Titian) hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
