Portrait of a Man

Robert Campin was one of the first great painters of the Netherlands, working in the early fifteenth century with oil paint rather than egg tempera. His pictures show holy figures in ordinary rooms full of real objects, painted with strong light, shadow and solid, weighty forms. He was born around 1378, probably in Valenciennes, and was the leading painter in Tournai for about thirty years. He ran a large workshop, and Rogier van der Weyden was his pupil. For a long time his works were given to an anonymous “Master of Flémalle”, and most scholars now identify that master as Campin, though the question has been debated. The Mérode Altarpiece at the Cloisters in New York is his best-known work, and the Werl Altarpiece panels are in the Prado. He died in Tournai in 1444. In his Annunciation scenes, look at the domestic details: towels, candlesticks, a bench. The sacred happens in an ordinary room.