Circle of Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599-1641 Blackfriars)

Head of an apostle (Jude: Judas Thaddeus)

Details

Circle of Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599-1641 Blackfriars)
Head of an apostle (Jude: Judas Thaddeus)
with number in red ink: '2882.' (verso)
black chalk heightened with white on brown paper
37.7 x 26 cm.

Provenance

Gabriel Huquier (1695-1772); Yver, Amsterdam, 14 September 1761, lot 760 (as Rubens), where purchased by
Johan van der Marck Aegidiuszoon (1707-1772) (L. 3001); Yver, Amsterdam, 29 November 1773, lot 1430 (as Rubens).
J. van Vollenhoven.
Private Collection, Sierre, Switzerland.

Literature

S. Barnes et al., Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven and London, 2004, under no. I.56. ('A chalk drawing of the same head, formerly incorrectly attributed to van Dyck, could have been copied from a similar study in oil').

Exhibited

Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Paris, Fondation Custodia, and Brussels, Bibliothèque Albert 1er, Le Cabinet d'un Amateur: Dessins flamands et hollandais des XVIe et XVIIe siècles d'une collection privée d'Amsterdam, 1976-77, no. 48, pl. 107 (as van Dyck; catalogue by J. Giltaij).

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Harriet West

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Lot Essay

Johan van der Marck's annotation on the verso states that he purchased the drawing at the Huquier sale in 1761, at which date it was attributed to Rubens. In the 1976-77 catalogue, it was described as a preparatory drawing for a painting by van Dyck in Vienna, showing the apostle Judas Thaddeus with his attribute of the set-square (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. 6809; Barnes et al., op. cit., I. 56). Another version of the painting, also by van Dyck, is in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (inv. 2434; Barnes et al., op. cit., I. 66). The two pictures belong to two separate series showing Christ and the Apostles, executed in the artist's first Antwerp period. The attribution to van Dyck for this drawing was rejected by the authors of the catalogue raisonné of van Dyck paintings who suggested that it is a copy after a similar study in oil (Barnes et al., op. cit.).

An attribution to Lucas Franchoys has been suggested.

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