Nieznany obraz Johna Greenhila ze zbiorów Zamku Królewskiego w Warszawie.
Unkown painting by John Greenhill in the collection of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Summary/Abstract: The Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum houses a fine portrait known as A Young Man with a Globe. Until recently, its authorship and personality of the portrayed man were unknown. Thanks to the extensive research carried out by the curators of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the author and the sitter were finally identified. Tomasz Jakubowski has found a graphic portrait of a young man in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, which closely resembles the painting. The etching was made in 1667 by John Greenhill (1642–1676), an English painter and draftsman, a most gifted pupil of Peter Lely. The painter portrayed his younger brother – Henry Greenhill (1646–1708), a merchant and sailor awarded by the Admiralty (1680), one of the principal commissioners of the Navy (1691), who supervised the completion of the Plymouth Docks. The painting from the Royal Castle in Warsaw bears the stylistic resemblance to other portraits by John Greenhill; nevertheless, it demonstrates also an individual approach of the painter. Since there are no more than thirty paintings by John Greenhill preserved till today, the new attribution of the portrait proves to be important not only for the Polish art historians but also for their British colleagues. Nevertheless, to confirm the authorship of the painting definitively, further research in British collections would be suggested and thorough examination by conservators. This would demand international cooperation, which, if successful, may result in a publication on John Greenhill’s output or even an exhibition.

• Details
• Contents