Young Boy in Profile

c. 1630

Judith Leyster

Painter, Dutch, 1609 - 1660

This round portrait painting shows the head, face, and the top of the shoulders of a young, blond boy with pale, peachy skin and flushed cheeks, facing our right in profile against a tan background. Light comes from behind us and to our left, so the boy’s cheek, jawline, and ear are brightly lit as he looks straight ahead, to our left. He has long, dark eyelashes, a turned-up nose, and his full, coral-pink lips are closed. The cheek we see is deeply flushed along the curve, near the nose and mouth. His short, light brown hair is highlighted with gold strands where it catches the light. A long tendril falls down past his chin on the far side of his face. He wears a fitted jacket, perhaps of brown velvet, stitched along the seams in a lighter golden color. The narrow, white ruff encircling his neck above the jacket is pleated to create a pattern of figure-eights. The background is lighter to our right and deepens to a brownish olive green to our left. The portrait is somewhat loosely painted with visible brushstrokes.

Media Options

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Judith Leyster possessed a remarkable ability to capture the freshness and spontaneity of children. In this beautifully painted tondo, the young boy conveys the innocence of childhood, his cheeks red and lips flushed. The flowing strand of hair in the background, known as a "love-lock," displays the lightness of Leyster’s touch, as do the delicate strokes defining the sitter’s features. Characteristic of Leyster’s techniques is the use of the back of the brush to scratch long strands of hair into the wet paint. Leyster’s supposed teacher Frans Hals (c.1585–1666) also possessed a remarkable ability to paint children with an energy and immediacy that transmits a sense of their vibrant youthfulness.

Judith Leyster entered into the Saint Luke’s Guild of Haarlem as an independent master in 1633. As a master in her own right, rare for a female artist, Leyster established her own workshop and had paying students. Five years earlier, her proficiency and talent had already drawn public praise. A chronicler of Haarlem described Judith Leyster, only nineteen years old at the time, as a painter of "good and keen insight." Following her marriage to fellow Haarlem artist Jan Miense Molenaer in 1636 Leyster stopped producing art in her own name, but probably continued to paint in collaboration with—and in the workshop of—her husband.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mrs. Thomas M. Evans

  • Dimensions

    diameter: 19 cm (7 1/2 in.)
    framed: 35.24 × 35.08 × 4.45 cm (13 7/8 × 13 13/16 × 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    2009.113.1

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Young Boy in Profile, c. 1630

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Private collection, Switzerland. (Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam), at least in 1968. (Newhouse Gallery, New York); purchased by Thomas Mellon Evans [1910-1997], New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut; by inheritance to his wife, Mrs. Thomas M. Evans [née Betty Barton, 1923-2013], New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut; gift 2009 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1968

  • Catalogue de tableaux anciens exposés dans les salons de Kunsthandel P. de Boer N.V., Amsterdam, 1968, no. 18, repro., as Tête d'enfant.

2002

  • Pleasures of Collecting: Part I, Renaissance to Impressionist Masterpieces, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro., as Head of a Young Girl.

2009

  • Judith Leyster, 1609-1660, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2009, unnumbered brochure, fig. 7.

2014

  • Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; Birmingham Museum of Art, 2014-2015, no. 19, repro. and fig. 9 (detail).

Bibliography

1968

  • Kunsthandel P. de Boer. Catalogue de tableaux anciens exposés dans les salons de Kunsthandel P. de Boer N.V.. Exh. cat. Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1968: no. 18.

1970

  • Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. 3 vols. National Gallery of Art Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art. London, 1970–1974: 3(1974):134, 170, no. 129.

2002

  • Sutton, Peter C., and Jennifer Ambrose. Pleasures of collecting: Part I, Renaissance to impressionist masterpieces. Exh. cat. Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2002: 81, repro.

2009

  • Hofrichter, Frima Fox. Judith Leyster (1609-1660). Exh. brochure. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009: 5, fig. 4.

2014

  • Wheelock, Arthur K, Jr. "The Evolution of the Dutch Painting Collection." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 50 (Spring 2014): 2-19, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q19326496

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