Memling's Memling's "Portrait of a Man" on Loan from The Frick Collection at the Norton Simon Museum

Hans Memling’s brilliance as one of the most formative Early Netherlandish painters is clearly evident in The Frick Collection’s panel Portrait of a Man, from the mid-1470s. From January through April, this enigmatic image will reside in the Early Renaissance gallery alongside the Norton Simon Foundation’s own religious panel by Memling, Christ Giving His Blessing, from around 1478.
 
The remarkable quantity of Memling’s extant portraits—in all, about fifty of the hundred or so panels that have been attributed to his hand or his workshop—testifies to the artist’s popularity and renown during his lifetime. All of these portraits were probably painted after his move to Bruges in 1465 from his birthplace in Seligenstadt, Germany. They demonstrate his awareness of a long line of counterparts, such as Robert Campin, Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Petrus Christus and Gerard David. Above all, they reveal his indebtedness to Rogier van der Weyden, with whom he assuredly trained in Brussels. Upon Rogier’s death in 1464, Memling made his way to the thriving city of Bruges, where he would buy his citizenship, marry, have three children and paint for the remainder of his life.
 

Norton Simon Museum