NETHERLANDISH, 18TH CENTURY

The bust offered here is a virtually identical version of the Head of a Crying Child in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (Avery, op. cit., p. 84). Perhaps the most distinctive characteristics of the busts are the highly expressive facial features such as the deeply furrowed brow, flaring nostrils and pursed, swollen lips. As Avery notes, the model is likely to have its origins in Netherlandish prototypes, which one can clearly see when considering the paintings from the circle of Rubens and sculptures of Artus Quellinus the Elder (1609-1668) and Rombout Verhulst (1624-1688).