Portrait of a gentleman, possibly a self-portrait of the artist, standing small three quarter length in a library by a curtain, wearing a beige waistcoat with lace chemise, brown jacket and wig, holding a document in his left hand

Little is known about the painter, of whom only five works are recorded in the RKD: two copies after Franois Boucher, one copy after Gerard ter Borch; a group portrait of a family, signed and dated 1761, in the collection of G. Schniewandt, Neuenrade and a portrait of a tobacco dealer, signed and dated 1760, offered at Dorotheum Vienna, 6 June 1991, lot 91, ill. According to A. Dosire in Le Dictionnaire des Peintres Belges du XIVe sicle nos jours, I, 1995, p.427, Faber was active in Antwerp, where he became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1753 and where he joined the academy in 1757. He is said to have been a pupil of Jan Joseph Horemans, whose influence is reflected in the group portrait of 1761. The present lot is close in style to the portrait of a tobacco-dealer,in an interior, signed and dated 1760.

See illustration