Portrait of Jean Gros (recto); Coat of Arms of Jean Gros (verso)

Rogier van der Weyden · 1460–64

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

38.5 × 28.8 cm (15 3/16 × 11 3/8 in.); Reverse: 39 × 28.8 cm (15 3/8 × 11 3/8 in.); Framed: 43.2 × 35.6 × 7.7 cm (17 × 14 × 3 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Italian Renaissance

This quietly commanding portrait of Jean Gros — secretary and councillor to Philip the Good of Burgundy — exemplifies the psychological intensity that made Rogier van der Weyden the most sought-after portraitist in fifteenth-century northern Europe. Painted in the final years of his life, the work demonstrates his signature mastery of the three-quarter pose, using subtle modelling in oil on panel to render the sitter's features with an almost unsettling presence — sharp, intelligent, fully alive. Van der Weyden's handling of light across the face and the precise rendering of fabric show why his influence spread from Flanders to Spain and Italy within his own lifetime. The panel's reverse bears Jean Gros's coat of arms, a detail that confirms the work was conceived as a personal object of status — likely a gift or commemorative commission tied to Gros's role in the Burgundian court. This hand-painted oil reproduction is executed on high-quality artist's panel, faithfully replicating van der Weyden's layered technique, tonal restraint, and the particular stillness that gives the original its enduring authority.