Head of a Donor

Albert van Ouwater's Head of a Donor, painted around 1460 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a fragmentary work by the important Haarlem painter who is credited with establishing the tradition of Dutch painting in the northern Netherlands. So few works by Ouwater survive that even this fragment is of considerable art historical significance, providing evidence of his portraiture skills alongside the better-known Raising of Lazarus.

The surviving fragment reveals Ouwater's careful observation of physiognomy and his refined oil technique, with subtle tonal modeling that captures the individual character of the donor's features.