Saint Simon - unfinished

This striking unfinished panel belongs to the series of apostles painted by van Dyck and his studio assistants between 1618-20 (for a note on the various series, see lot 119). The picture can be compared with two panels depicting Saint Simon, of almost identical dimensions, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The figure on the left in van Dyck’s Study of Two Heads (1618-20; Lyon Musée des Beaux-Arts) served as the model for Simon, and is also the source for other early works by the artist, including the man, seen on the far left of the composition, in Suffer Little Children to Come under Me(1618-20; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada). The vigorous brushwork in the treatment of Simon’s hair and the beautifully observed tension in the muscles of his turning neck reveal the strong influence of Rubens, whose own series of Apostles, now in the Prado, were ultimately the inspiration for the young van Dyck’s. We are grateful to Dr. Susan Barnes who has endorsed the attribution to van Dyck after inspection of the original.