After Sir Anthony van Dyck,

Flemish 1599-1641-

Portrait of a Genovese gentleman, Alessandro Giustiniani-Longo (1544-1631); and Portrait of a Genovese lady;

oils on canvas, each 200.5 x 114.2 cm., two (2).

Provenance: Private Collection, UK.

Note: Two finely executed 19th-century copies after the original oils on canvas by van Dyck, now hanging in the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin [nos 782B and 782C]. Presumably painted in Genoa in around the same time, c.1621-23, during van Dycks stay in Italy (1621-27), until 1998, the original portraits were erroneously considered to represent a married couple. The gentleman is the Genoese senator Alessandro Giustiniani-Longo, who was in his late seventies when the original portrait was painted. He belonged to an ancient and noble Genoese family, and held prestigious offices including Doge of Liguria in 1611-13 and Procurator of the Genoese Republic from 1613 onwards, a lifelong position that had him controlling the regions finances. In contrast, the identity of the woman remains uncertain. Her hairstyle with the lacy ornament on her forehead indicates that she is a widow, thus making it unlikely that she is Giustiniani-Longos wife. In addition, a later 17th-century copy of the portrait shows that it was originally wider, and that a section on the left side was removed at a later point, presumably to make it match the portrait of the gentleman. The different settings and furnishing details, as well as the fact that the woman is sitting higher than the man also challenge the previous belief that they are companion portraits. The original paintings were owned by Costantino Balbi (1676-1741), 154th Doge of the Republic of Genoa and King of Corsica, at the beginning of the 18th century, until they were acquired by the English collector Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) in 1828, through the mediation of Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841). They arrived in Berlin, from Peel's estate which was sold at auction in 1900.