Portrait of a Father and His Son

Under the paint on this panel there is a name. An old inscription reading Monsieur le Président Richardot was covered over in the 19th century and can be read now only under infrared light, and for a long time it settled who the older man was. Jean Richardot headed the privy council of the archdukes who ruled the Spanish Netherlands, and he died in 1609. The Louvre dates the panel to about 1620, its own catalogue to the first months of that year, so he cannot be the sitter. The name of the Antwerp scholar Jan Woverius has been put forward instead and has not been accepted, and the father and the son remain anonymous. The history of the object is far better known. It passed through several large French collections in the 18th century, was bought for Louis XVI in 1784, and was already on the wall when the Louvre opened to the public in 1793. The panel was enlarged on all four sides before 1802.