Resumen de An unknown self-portrait by Gonzales Coques in St Petersburg
The small Portrait of a man by the Flemish painter Gonzales Coques had been long forgotten in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, and has only recently been identified. The painting was in the collection of Count Cobenzl, Plenipotentiary Minister in the Austrian Netherlands, and was acquired from him by Catherine the Great in 1768. Comparison of the painting to an engraved portrait of Gonzales Coques in Cornelis de Bie's Het Gulden Cabinet seems to confirm that it is a self-portrait. While the purpose of the work is unknown, it remains one of the few surviving examples of Coques's skillfully executed miniature portraits.
