Lot Essay
Dated by Kultzen to Sweerts's period of activity in Amsterdam, circa 1658/9 - autumn of 1661, when he seems to have concentrated on portraiture. Sweerts probably executed portraits in his younger days in Rome although his portraits of children seem to date from his subsequent activity in Brussels from 1656 - circa 1658/9. Kultzen, op. cit., pp. 64-5, writes of the present work that it 'is a good example of the schematic treatment of a head type', and he compares it with the Young Gentleman and Procuress in the Louvre (Inv. no. RF 1967-11) and Head of a Boy in the Stedelijk Museum, Groningen. He notes that Sweerts's preference for depicting children 'seems to be explained partly by the fresh simplicity of the children's faces. Uninhibited and untouched by experience, their malleable features offer an ideal opportunity of applying set rules of portraiture'. In this aspect of his art, as Kultzen records, it has been suggested that Sweerts shows an 'affinity with Vermeer'.