Portrait of a Man

The anonymous sitter in DPG615 wears a scarf and a silk banyan, a loose robe of Asian cut that was worn indoors for informal occasions. Across Europe there was a fashion for male portraits in such dress throughout the eighteenth-century. His desk is littered with letters, papers and receipts, and he is writing in a cash book. Pronk signed and dated the painting on one of the letters on the bottom left: a common device to include the artist's signature as part of the scene.