Head studies of two African men

Details

Jacob Jordaens (Antwerp 1593-1678)
Head studies of two African men
oil on canvas
12½ x 18½ in. (31.8 x 47 cm.)
There is evidence of a different design beneath

Provenance

Jacob Goldschmidt; (+) Sotheby's, London, 28 November 1956, lot 130, as Sir Anthony van Dyck.

Literature

'Art at the Fair', Supplement to Art News, 1940, pp. 23 and 30.
J.S. Held, 'Notes on Jacob Jordaens', Oud Holland, LXXX, 1965, p. 115, fig. 11.
'The Four Heads of a Negro in Brussels and Malibu' (reprint from 'Miscellanea in Memoriam Paul Coremans (1908-1965)', Bulletin, Institute Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, XV, 1975, pp. 180ff.), in Rubens and his Circle Studies by Julius S. Held, A.W. Lowenthal, D.Rosand and J. Walsh, eds., Princeton, 1982, pp. 152-153, note 14, p. 155, fig. XIII.5.
E. Larsen, The Paintings of Anthony van Dyck, Freren, II, 1988, pp. 64-5, no. 129, as from the workshop of Van Dyck.

Exhibited

New York, Masterpieces of Art, The New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 75, illustrated.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Dated by Held (in 1965) to the late 1620s, who pointed out that a similar African man's head in profile appears in a Triumph of Bacchus(?) at the Castle of Blois (his fig. 9), a compilation deriving from Jordaens. In fact the date of execution, if Held's attribution is generally accepted, may well be rather later; but these studies have not as yet been associated with any large-scale work by the artist. Such head studies were executed by Jordaens in particular early in his career, in keeping with the Antwerp studio tradition and, more directly, under the influence of Rubens.

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