Portrait of Princely Count Charles of Arenberg.

Painting, oil on panel, 81,2 x 45,3 cm, unsigned (some paint losses and retouching, bottom left corner cut irregularly, bottom right corner repaired).

Few holes on edges on verso from former frame. Panel in good condition.

Standing portrait of Charles of Arenberg (1550-1616) in black clothing with a white collar and cuffs, holding a letter. The Arenberg coat of arms at top left. The panel was cut at right, partially removing the inscription with the depicted age and the date at top right: "AE [...] / A [...]". Charles of Arenberg was a leading aristocrat of the Low Countries and a prominent statesman and military man of the Habsburg Empire. This portrait with a full, brown beard most closely resembles his likeness on the family portrait from ca. 1593 in the Arenberg Collection of KU Leuven (inv. ARS014). On later portraits his beard is trimmed and grey, see for example the group portrait of the Somerset House Conference from 1604 in London (National Portrait Gallery, inv. NPG 665).