English School, early 19th century
Portrait of a Man in a Top Hat
Oil on canvas

Unsigned. 9 x 6 inches (23 x 15 cm), the frame 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 23 cm). Carved gilt frame. Good original condition, a fine age craquelure.

A man of middle years is seen at half length against a plain brown ground, turned slightly to his right, under a tall black hat with a flat brim. He wears a dark coat and a white stock wound high under the chin above a ruffled shirt front.

The face is ruddy, the cheeks and nose carrying more red than the rest, and the eyes are set close and level. The hat above it is laid in flat black with almost no modeling, a single silhouette on a head worked in warm reds and pinks. One hand comes into the lower edge of the picture holding something the paint no longer describes.