A Man and A Woman (Campin)
A Man and A Woman are two oil and egg tempera on oak panel portraits made around 1435 by the Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin. They are usually seen as a pair (pendants) or possibly wings of a now-dismantled diptych. The backs of the panels are marbled, suggesting they were not meant to be hung flat against a wall.
The identities of the sitters are unknown. In the 19th century people speculated they might be Quentin Matsys and his wife or Rogier van der Weyden and his wife, but there is no historical evidence or inscriptions on the paintings to confirm who they were.
The works were bought by the National Gallery, London in 1860, and are displayed together. Both portraits are similar in size and format: each is made from two vertical oak boards, shown at half length against a solid black background. They are brightly and evenly lit, with the heads cropped tightly so they dominate the scene. The color schemes are limited: the man uses red, dark green, and black; the woman uses white, brown, and black. Both wear large headdresses: the man’s red chaperon with a padded crown and wrapped scarf, and the woman’s wrap of linen veils.
There is a clear age difference: the man has brown eyes and sagging eyelids; the woman has bright blue eyes. Since their rediscovery in the 19th century, the paintings have sometimes been linked to Matsys or van der Weyden, and at one time were even called works by Rogier van der Weyden the Younger. The prevailing view now is that Campin painted them. No signed Campin works survive, and there are no inscriptions or heraldry on the panels.
Art historian Lorne Campbell notes similarities between the man and Campin’s Saint Veronica and between the woman and a Virgin in the same grouping, suggesting a shared approach to heads, skin texture, and eye details.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:25 (CET).