Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length, in a black doublet and white lace collar, a black cloak draped around his shoulder

Traditionally thought to be a self-portrait by Murillo, presumably on the grounds of the inscription alone, the attribution was already doubted in the 1932 catalogue of the pictures at Doughty House. The entry on the picture there records that 'The ascription and the identity are alike fanciful. The inscription across the foreground is not above suspicion'. Nevertheless, the picture is still mentioned in the Murillo literature as late as 1978. However, the artist is almost certainly Flemish rather than Spanish. In the opinion of Dr. Rudi Ekkart, to whom we are grateful, of the RKD, the portrait is by an artist close to Van Dyck.

Sir Francis Cook became the head of his father's textile manufacturing and wholesaling firm in 1869, establishing through it a fortune that enabled him to become one of the principal collectors of antique Greek and Roman sculpture in the Victorian period, as well as a major buyer of paintings, acquiring his collection mostly at auction between 1855 and 1870. Cook's wide-ranging collection of paintings at Doughty House was one of the finest of his time, containing works such as Titian's celebrated Portrait of Ranuccio Farnese, Fra Filippo Lippi and Fra Angelico's Adoration of the Magi, Bellini's Episode from the Life of Publius Cornelius Scipio, François Clouet's A Lady in her Bath and Mantegna's the Christ Child blessing (all National Gallery, Washington, D.C.) and Titian's Portrait of a lady (National Gallery, London).