Portrait of a Gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a brocaded silk Japonsche rock, on the terrace of a garden at sunset

The sitter is shown wearing a Japonsche Rock, a type of kimono that became fashionable in Holland during the last quarter of the 17th Century, in response to ceremonial gifts of kimonos given to Dutch East India Company officers by the Japanese shoguns. Their desirability, as an item of prestige as much as of fashion, spread through Europe during the 18th Century. A popular costume for portrait subjects, Frans Hals painted a sitter in a slightly earlier garment (Seymour Slive, catalogue of the exhibition Frans Hals, London, Royal Academy, 1989, pp. 358-360), and Pepys mentions his 'Indian gowne' hired for his portrait by John Hayls (London, National Portrait Gallery, no. 211).