Portrait of a Man with His Dog Simon Vouet

Simon Vouet, the defining master of French baroque painting, began his career fulfilling commissions for portraits as part of the entourage of the French ambassador in Constantinople. He spent the 1610s in Rome, where he was influenced by the art of the recently deceased Caravaggio. The portraits Vouet produced during this period are characterised by perfect realism and his expert handling of chiaroscuro. In the early 1620s he briefly sojourned in Genoa, where he became familiar with portraits painted by artists from the north of Europe, including Anthony van Dyck, depicting noblemen in more static poses. The young man in this painting has not yet been identified. He is portrayed frontally, against a neutral background, with the kind of hand gesture often seen in portraits of rulers, and judging from the richly detailed attire and weaponry, he must have been a military man.