The sitter, who is identified by an old label on the stretcher, came from an ancient Swedish noble family. He began travelling abroad at the age of 20, studying at the University of Halle in Germany and visiting France, the Southern and Northern Netherlands and Denmark, before returning to Sweden after three years. He subsequently became a judge, a provincial governor and finally President of the Bergskollegium (Visiting Committee of Mining).

Another portrait of Ribbing aged 56, at Gripsholm Castle, Sweden, was painted in 1727 by the Swedish artist Johan Henrik Scheffel (1690-1781; S. Roth, Johan Henrik Scheffel, Goteborg, 1936, p. 314, no. 411, pl. 12). Ribbing's biography (Biografiskt Lexicon öfver namkunnige svenska män, XI, Uppsala, 1845, pp. 96-8) does not record any further travels but the date on the present picture would suggest that he visited the Netherlands again in 1701.

We are grateful to Mr. Willem van de Watering for his assistance in cataloguing this lot