Head of a Young Boy

c. 1650

Jan de Bray

Painter, Dutch, c. 1627 - 1688

The head and shoulders of a young, pale-skinned boy fill this oval portrait painting. His shoulders are angled to our right, but he turns his face to look at us out of the corners of his large, dark blue eyes. His round cheeks and nose are slightly flushed, and his full, pink lips are closed over a cleft chin. His wavy brown hair falls to his shoulders and around his high, lace-edged collar. The boy’s brown doublet has small buttons down the front, which falls open over a linen shirt. His sleeves are also slit almost up to the shoulders to reveal linen there, too. Light from high to our left falls across the boy’s face and casts the ocean-green background into shadow.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Measuring just under 3-by-3 inches, this diminutive Head of a Young Boy engages the viewer through the sitter’s intense and serious gaze. Executed in free yet delicate brushstrokes, the work reveals the artist's mastery in rendering details within a restricted space. The smooth surface of the copper plate provided a perfect ground for the highly refined and precise technique of the painter, traditionally believed to be Jan de Bray. Customarily, such small portraits were placed in wide ebony frames that direct the viewer's eye to the image. The artist enhanced the illusionism of daylight streaming in from the left by painting a narrow shadow along the upper-left curved edge of the picture, thereby suggesting the presence of the frame.

The attribution of miniature portraits is often difficult to establish. This painting is similar, but not identical in style and technique, to miniatures De Bray executed early in his career. The boy, who is probably about six to eight years old, wears a doublet that can be dated to between 1650 and 1655. De Bray often made bust-length depictions of children as parts of Dutch family portrait series. Head of a Young Boy most likely belongs to one such series.


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on copper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Maida and George Abrams

  • Dimensions

    overall (oval): 7.5 x 5.9 cm (2 15/16 x 2 5/16 in.)
    framed: 16.8 x 15.2 cm (6 5/8 x 6 in.)

  • Accession

    1995.74.1

More About this Artwork


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Rafael Valls Limited, London); purchased 1960s by Maida and George Abrams, Newton, Massachusetts; gift 1995 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1995

  • Adriaen Brouwer: Youth Making a Face, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1995-1996, not in brochure.

1998

  • A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, not in catalogue.

2000

  • Small Northern European Portraits from The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000, brochure checklist no. 36.

Bibliography

2000

  • Spicer, Joaneath, and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. Small Northern European Portraits from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Exh. brochure, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000: no. 36.

Wikidata ID

Q20177316


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