Hendrik van Halmale with his Horse and Groom

In 1848 the Scottish historian William Stirling, writing about the painters of Spain, listed this canvas as a Velázquez and told a story about how it had reached England. It had been bought in Flanders from a descendant of the sitter, who would not part with it until he had cut out the coat of arms. The missing piece was later bought for a trifle from the seller's servant and put back into the canvas. The arms are there at the lower right, above an inscription naming Messire Hendrik de Halmale, baron. The picture was shown as a Velázquez at the great Art Treasures exhibition in Manchester in 1857. When it came to Boston in 1909, a gift of the collector Francis Bartlett, it was entered under the name of Pieter Thijs, a portrait painter from Antwerp. The museum now gives it to Jürgen Ovens. Van Halmale stands with a long cane on a canvas well over two metres high, while a groom holds his pale horse.