Michel Sittow, c 1469–December 1525, was an Estonian painter born in Reval, now Tallinn, and associated with Early Netherlandish art. He probably received his earliest training from his father, the painter and sculptor Clawes van der Sittow, before moving to Bruges in 1484; an apprenticeship with Hans Memling is plausible but undocumented.
By 1492 Sittow served Queen Isabella of Castile as a court painter and portraitist and collaborated with Juan de Flandes on small devotional panels for her collection. After Isabella’s death, his work took him among several European courts, including those of Philip the Fair, Margaret of Austria, Charles V, and Christian II of Denmark. He returned to Reval in 1506, joined the local artists’ guild in 1507, and resumed work there after further court service by 1518.
Paintings by or attributed to Sittow are held by the National Gallery of Art, the Mauritshuis, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, the Gemäldegalerie, and the Art Museum of Estonia’s Niguliste Museum. He remained active in Reval until his death in late December 1525.
The Assumption of the Virgin, c 1500
Oil on panel, 8.4 × 6.6 in
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Portrait of a Man with a Pink, c 1500
Oil on panel, 9.5 × 7 in
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Portrait of a Man, c 1510
Oil on panel, 14.1 × 10.2 in
Mauritshuis, The Hague
A Young Man in a Red Cap, c 1512
Oil on oak panel, 6.5 × 5 in
Detroit Institute of Arts
Mary Rose Tudor (1496–1533), Sister of Henry VIII of England (?), c 1514
Oil on oak panel, 11.3 × 8.3 in
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Portrait of the Danish King Christian II, 1514–1515
Oil on panel, 12.2 × 8.7 in
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
Catherine of Aragon as the Magdalene, c 1515
Oil on oak panel, 12.1 × 9.4 in
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Viscount of Lautrec, Better Known as the Man with the Pearl, c 1515–1517
Oil on oak panel, 8.7 × 7.4 in
Royal Palace of Madrid
Portrait of Diego de Guevara (?), c 1515–1518
Oil on panel, 13.2 × 9.3 in
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Virgin and Child, c 1515–1518
Oil on oak panel, 13.1 × 10.1 in
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Passion Altarpiece, Left Outer Wing: St James the Elder and the Virgin and Child, c 1520
Tempera and oil on oak panel, 74.4 × 37.8 in
Niguliste Museum, Tallinn
The Passion Altarpiece, Right Outer Wing: St Adrian of Nicomedia and St Anthony the Great, c 1520
Tempera and oil on oak panel, 74.4 × 37 in
Niguliste Museum, Tallinn