The head of a young man, in profile to the left

While trained as a painter by his father Anthony Cossiers (fl. first half 17th Century) and Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651), Jan Cossiers is today mainly known for his portrait drawings which are among the finest and most distinctive produced in Seventeenth-Century Flanders. The small number of drawings by him that have survived have often erroneously been given to other Flemish artists like Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). Such was also the case with the present drawing which was sold in the 1921 Northwick sale as by Rubens. The delicate handling and combination of black, red and white chalks is, however, typical of Cossiers' drawings and can be especially compared to Portrait of Cornelis Cossiers, signed and dated 1658, previously in the collection of I.Q. van Regteren Altena and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Inv. RP-T-2008-103; J. Giltaij, Le Cabinet d’un Amateur: Dessins flamands et hollandais des XVIe et XVIIe siècles d’une collection privée d’Amsterdam, exhib. cat., Paris, Institut néerlandais and elsewhere, 1976-77, no. 43, pl. 106) and to Portrait of Jan Frans Cossiers, also signed and dated 1658, in the Fondation Custodia, Paris (see C. van Hasselt, Flemish drawings of the Seventeenth Century from the collection of Frits Lugt Institut néerlandais Paris, exhib. cat., Paris, Institut Néerlandais, 1972, no. 20, pl. 74). As the drawing is not inscribed with the sitter's name, his identity remains unknown, but the intimate character of the drawing might suggest that it is a portrait of someone from Cossiers' own family or circle of friends.