.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The attribution for this head study to van Dyck is based on its close relationship with a series of five similar head sketches on paper in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. All were painted from life, mostly after the same model, as independent works and although some were used in other larger paintings, no such use is known for this study. The Munich series are thought to have been painted as pairs on large sheets of paper which were then divided in the 1650s and laid down on panels. They are generally dated to Van Dyck's formative years, around 1615/6, when he was just sixteen or seventeen.
The present study shows the same model and in the same pose as in one of the Munich sheets (inv. no. 4809), which was recently exhibited in The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt (Kassel, Staatliche Museum, and Amsterdam, Rembrandthuis, 2001-2, no. 69). In a recent communication, Nora de Poorter, to whom we are grateful, considers this a second version of the Munich study and will publish it as such in her section of the van Dyck catalogue, due for publication at the end of this year. She points out that most of the Munich sheets exist in more than one version thus raising the question as to 'whether it is acceptable that van Dyck made more than one version of the same head in the same pose' which she deems unlikely.
There are, however, crucial differences between this and the other version. Although the intense meditative expression is more or less the same, the angle of the head is raised slightly and the eyes, which are here more lively, are directed at a point to the sitter's right. In addition, the nose is more pointed and the definition and tonality of the collar entirely different. The broad, apparently spontaneous brushwork is common to both pictures. Van Dyck seems to have applied the paint thickly and rapidly, using a loaded brush and a palette made up predominantly of red, black, white and ochre with blue grey to enliven the hair. Bernard Schnackenburg, in the catalogue of the exhibition (loc. cit.), remarks that the execution of the Munich sketch 'appears in the first instance shockingly raw, but Van Dyck has carefully considered his application of the medium'. In this picture, Van Dyck has painted a more concentrated area of white highlight in the forehead with new accents on the bridge and end of the nose. A stroke of red is employed to pick out the lower lip.
The format of the Munich picture is markedly larger than the present study (57 x 41.4 cm.), but from photographs at least, it appears that it has been enlarged (possibly when laid onto panel), from a size that must correspond almost exactly with this sheet.
The present study shows the same model and in the same pose as in one of the Munich sheets (inv. no. 4809), which was recently exhibited in The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt (Kassel, Staatliche Museum, and Amsterdam, Rembrandthuis, 2001-2, no. 69). In a recent communication, Nora de Poorter, to whom we are grateful, considers this a second version of the Munich study and will publish it as such in her section of the van Dyck catalogue, due for publication at the end of this year. She points out that most of the Munich sheets exist in more than one version thus raising the question as to 'whether it is acceptable that van Dyck made more than one version of the same head in the same pose' which she deems unlikely.
There are, however, crucial differences between this and the other version. Although the intense meditative expression is more or less the same, the angle of the head is raised slightly and the eyes, which are here more lively, are directed at a point to the sitter's right. In addition, the nose is more pointed and the definition and tonality of the collar entirely different. The broad, apparently spontaneous brushwork is common to both pictures. Van Dyck seems to have applied the paint thickly and rapidly, using a loaded brush and a palette made up predominantly of red, black, white and ochre with blue grey to enliven the hair. Bernard Schnackenburg, in the catalogue of the exhibition (loc. cit.), remarks that the execution of the Munich sketch 'appears in the first instance shockingly raw, but Van Dyck has carefully considered his application of the medium'. In this picture, Van Dyck has painted a more concentrated area of white highlight in the forehead with new accents on the bridge and end of the nose. A stroke of red is employed to pick out the lower lip.
The format of the Munich picture is markedly larger than the present study (57 x 41.4 cm.), but from photographs at least, it appears that it has been enlarged (possibly when laid onto panel), from a size that must correspond almost exactly with this sheet.