Tronie of an old man with beret

Paudiß employs a restrained palette of deep browns and blacks, allowing the illuminated features of the face to emerge from a shadowed background. The handling of light creates a chiaroscuro effect reminiscent of his teacher Rembrandt, while the brushwork remains tight around the facial details and looser in the surrounding drapery, highlighting the three‑dimensionality of the sitter.

Created in the mid‑seventeenth century, the painting entered the collection of the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, where it has been displayed as part of the museum’s Baroque holdings. Its provenance prior to acquisition by the museum is not extensively documented, but the work has remained associated with Paudiß’s output throughout its known history.

Paudiß, a Bavarian painter trained under Rembrandt, worked within the broader Flemish Baroque tradition that prized dramatic lighting and realistic character studies. The tronie genre allowed artists to experiment with expression and technique without the constraints of commissioned portraiture, and this piece exemplifies that practice during a period of cross‑regional artistic exchange.